AI6YR BenI suppose I should document making my pajama pants, rather than just making them. 🤔
(pattern I purchased for $2 at the thrift store is BRAND NEW. Will not cut it, will trace it) #sewing
Let's put this up for a poll, lol.
Document it in detail
Just the overall steps
This is boring, I'm changing the channel
Why are you asking us?!?!
Poll ended at .
First, the question of sizing. Hip size standing is 42, but hip size sitting down is more like 45. Since these are pajama pants, going larger. Large. Not in this package, but I will just scale it out. #sewing #scrubpants
Not cutting the pattern, after hearing from everyone here telling me to try not to do that. #sewing #pajamas
Using white tracing paper was a mistake. The sheet still has many white areas. Had to get a headlamp to see things. And trace over the pattern again with chalk. Terrible phone in the way photo. #sewing #pajamas
Completed cutting these the other night. Not too complex. Fabric wrinkles from the Japanese style dying definitely made it a challenge, those wrinkles do not iron out lol. (Tied tightly and nearly boiled, they are pretty set). Will make cool looking pants though with the texture. #sewing #pajamas
LESSON: instead of directly trading the pattern onto the fabric, I should have traced the pattern onto another piece of paper, and THEN cut out the pattern on that paper and used it to mark/cut the fabric. The very large piece of tissue paper pattern was extremely difficult to manage. #sewing
Okay, too tired to sew this, but made one step forward. Mystery instructions on buttonhole, which I skipped. Will ponder where this actually is later. Or, I need to pull out the pattern again. #sewing #pajamapants
(there's only 8 pieces to this thing, plus a tie, so it should be fast... but, I am easily distracted, and I have a huge "task switching" penalty I have to overcome for most things, lol). #sewing
Cannot decode patch pocket instructions. Facing and inside outside thing makes no sense. 🤔 Already sewed one (probably wrong) but multiple leasons and issues here too. #sewing
Okay, got the pockets attached, and sewed the two legs together.
Before I forget, the two lessons:
1. Do not sew the inside leg together before pockets. Had to pull them apart!
2. Mark the pocket location with something besides chalk. it all rubbed off, no idea where they are supposed to go, just stuck them where I wanted.
Anyway, no photos yet, but top of the pants have about 6 inches too wide of a waist, lol. They are pajamas, so loose is good... but that might be too lose. ON THE OTHER HAND, I can do hand to hand martial arts in these. OR, I could film a music video. The bottoms are wide as bell bottoms, too, ha ha ha.
Hips are 6 inches too wide. Will be using these as pajamas, but I still need to take in the hips. The bottoms are as wide as 1970's bell bottoms, lol. These would be terrible, terrible as medical scrubs. #sewing #pajamas
Lunch break, so doing some quick work here. Going off pattern. Going to go for elastic instead of ties. Happenes to pick up the elastic at an estate sale last week. #sewing #pajamas
Done! The width on the bottom of these (per pattern!!) Is absolutely, completely, ridiculous. They are supposed to be scrubs. Apparently, bell bottom scrubs. #sewing #pajamas
These are Elvis Impersonator sized lower leg bottoms. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/elvis-impersonator-performing-on-stage-royalty-free-image/200398387-002?phrase=male bell bottoms&adppopup=true
Janice in GA
me_valentijn@ai6yr
Pretty sure you're obligated to do a little dance with that camera and mirror setup, even if you never show it to anyone 🤔
Pretty sure you're obligated to do a little dance with that camera and mirror setup, even if you never show it to anyone 🤔
Claus Cramon Houmann@ai6yr infinite pants!!
Mark Whybird@claushoumann @ai6yr Endless pants!
jj the Santa Barbarian@ai6yr But they have a certain je ne sais quoi!
Bosque Bill@ai6yr I don't know. Looks like you could scrub the floor with them just fine.
@bosquebill LOL is that a traditional use for scrubs?
@ai6yr
Elastic up those ankles, and you've got some primo harem pants 😏
Elastic up those ankles, and you've got some primo harem pants 😏
MsMerope
Sam Levine@ai6yr terrible medical scrubs, or extremely comfortable lounge pants?
John BurnsWe called them "Elephant Bells" back then.
Very obvious when worn while snow shoveling and the pant legs froze up... and your leg/foot become the bell clanger...
😎
Tamami@ai6yr As a person who used to sew half of what I wore (because I couldn't afford to buy clothes), I was very amused by this thread. I also just made a super-simple wrap skirt out of a bedsheet -- because it's 100% linen and was in a good shape -- I was like, OK i'm not the only one!
@Tamami LOL what is most amusing (the fact these were bedsheets?). Anyway, glad you enjoy it. I'm learning a lot on this project, too (which is the point, ha ha).
@ai6yr Everything, like use of marking chalks, sizing, etc, but yes the use of bedsheets... I mean, don't we all have a stack of wrong-sized bedsheets in the corner of a closet? I have an unused top sheet I am thinking of turning into another skirt or pants, but that means I'd be wearing the same patterns of a fitted sheet my son currently sleeps on... 😅
teresa_athome@Tamami @ai6yr I turned an old ripped bedsheet into handkerchiefs earlier this year. They're not all the same size, but they are all big enough. Soft and absorbent what more could you want in a handkerchief?
I have other mismatched/worn sheets that I'm eyeing for tank tops and/or sun dresses. That soft cotton and linen is too nice to toss. I will eventually use all of them for something.
@teresa_athome @ai6yr I LOVE THAT! I've also started to make cotton napkins out of Japanese towels (flat weave cotton cloth) and using them instead of paper napkins. Much nicer.
Kinene⭐🐻@c_merriweather @Tamami Oooh, great tip! I will have to look next time we go to that amusement park 🤪
@c_merriweather @ai6yr I wish I had IKEA nearby, but we have a huge-old warehouse of fabric in town... It's called Mill End Fabric -- imperfect mill-end condition, and it's on the end of Mill St! How clever. They have every kind of fabric and notions imaginable, and CHEAP
@Tamami @c_merriweather Oooh, cool on a store being near you! I do not know if there is a fabric place nearby here anymore, I should look (nothing in town, at least). Nearest Ikea is an hour away driving time.
Bob Tregilus@Tamami I sew, but not a lot. I've never gone to a regular fabric store so I have no reference. I always thought Mill End Fabrics was probably the best deal but for surplus fabric it still seems very pricey. Is a regular fabric store really that much more? 😱
@elaterite @c_merriweather @ai6yr Yes! Mill End definitely is the cheapest I've ever seen; you shoulda seen Jo-ann. Also the best thing of Mill End is that if you want something, they'll probably have it. It wasn't the case with Jo-ann.
Dr_Bombay@Tamami @elaterite @c_merriweather @ai6yr I’ll second the praise for Mill End Fabric. Love that place to death. It’s my go-to place for sewing projects, even when JoAnn was in existence.
@Dr_Bombay @elaterite @c_merriweather @ai6yr There's something so... nostalgic about that place too. Almost like time-traveling to last century
@Tamami @elaterite @c_merriweather @ai6yr it’s true. Receipts are hand-written, and the staff *somehow* knows where everything is in that maze of a place.
@Dr_Bombay Absolutely, love Mill End for all of those reasons. And yes, the nostalgia. I once lived where there was a Mill End like business but they sold surplus electrical / electronics / mechanical items. The stuff was stacked on shelves up to the ceiling and in boxes on the floor. I always figured the fire inspector would just drive by the place and shake their head, too scared to go in. Ha ha...
@elaterite @Dr_Bombay
You know those urban legends where John Smith vanishes while he was shopping at a store, and then reappears at the same spot 26 years later as if nothing happened, and John has no memory of those 26 years? Mill End is the kind of place that might happen.
You know those urban legends where John Smith vanishes while he was shopping at a store, and then reappears at the same spot 26 years later as if nothing happened, and John has no memory of those 26 years? Mill End is the kind of place that might happen.
@Tamami Ha ha, absolutely!
@Tamami @elaterite omg. YES. So true. One day I will be John Smith in this scenario.
bees and nature
Sarah dreams of beans@ai6yr That is needlessly complicated language for a fun little sewing task. Booooo
W6KME@ai6yr This is something I face as an instructor all the time...instructions written by someone so familiar with something that they no longer understand that not everyone is as familiar. These instructions probably looked great to the author.
I'm always forcing myself to ask--what would the thing I am saying sound like to me before I learned anything about this thing? It's not easy.
@ai6yr You're another person who teaches based upon their knowledge of a subject, rather than their credentials as a teacher, so I suspect you know exactly what I mean. I'm constantly forcing myself to step outside my own head and into my students' minds, because I don't have those formal skills.
And, I strongly suspect, neither do many professional teachers. At least very few of the ones I have known.
Honestly, I think it gives me an advantage over many "professors". How's that for ego? 😂
@W6KME Oh, absolutely.... understanding (or attempting to understand) how a beginner might tackle a subject is extremely important. I had so many professors who were BRILLIANT... to the point they couldn't explain stuff to students, who had none of that brilliance. ("it's OBVIOUS, why can't you see it?!?!" US: "Uh... you're the Nobel prize winner...") 😂
Katherine WWhen I was in a position teaching various skills to adults, I made a point of taking a class in something I knew nothing about every year. The purpose was both so I could see how other people explained and taught things, and so that I could have the experience of not knowing/understanding the new thing being taught. I found both valuable.
@FiddleSix @W6KME Great idea!
kelleynnn@ai6yr Inside and outside of the pocket when it is done, i.e. inside is toward the wrong side of the fabric etc. Then later, "inner edge" means deeper inside the finished pocket/more toward the center of the piece. We don't need to know that is a "facing" and I agree that is a confusing over explanation.
"Mediocre Bunny" Evelyn@ai6yr Okay.
My *guess* that you're forming the hem along the top/open edge of the patch pocket by making a short, wide, wrong-side-out bag/pocket/thing with 3 closed sides & 1 open side. Then you can turn the bag/pocket/thing right side out, and you will have all the raw edges tucked neatly inside your right-side-out patch-pocket-to-be.
If the above doesn't make sense; that's either because I've expressed it badly, or else I'm wrong. Very possibly both.
Ash-Miw-Re@ai6yr just follow the picture, maybe? It looks like they want to make sure that upper hem gets folded over twice so that you aren't rubbing a raw edge every time you use the pocket, but it's kind of a complicated way of going about it.
Emily Velasco@ai6yr i have dealt with this exact thing in a simplicity pattern. I'm glad you got it figured out
@MLE_online "simplicity"... more like "we skipped 5 steps here"
Sara@ai6yr I think it's intended to give that upper pocket edge a little more stiffness by putting the extra stitching in there
but I would probably cut the bottom and side edges with a pinking shear (to keep them from fraying when you use the pocket) and just roll the top with an iron and sew it down
@ai6yr ohhhhh wait no there's a facing!
ok basically the whole thing is lined
they're telling you how to assemble it so that it's like a little bag sort of thing, with no raw edges at all
that's actually a nice way to do it I think
you assemble the little bag, turn it clean-edges-out, then do this flippy thing they're showing in the illustration to finish the top edge
@sarae Yeah, it appears to be an edge basically to catch stuff? Or at least give it stiffness. Anyway, i just rolled the edge inward twice for some stiffness and sewed it before attaching the pocket.
@ai6yr don't feel bad about it not making sense at first, I've been reading patterns for, uh... more than forty years now and it took me a couple tries to see what they're going for with this one
there are some cute old fashioned tricks like this that you do when you don't have a serger, it's good craft knowledge