Speed bump - solved -

With a little LOT of help from my friends -

Who suggested splitting the seams - and hiding the "difference" in the folded up hem -

And it worked!! - THANKS!! - ;))

Hemming "tapered" pants is definitely NOT in my comfort zone -

I used to sew my own clothes YEARS ago -

But I remember getting the whole thing done -

Whatever it was -

Including "setting-in" sleeves and inserting zippers -

And then setting it aside because it needed to be hemmed -

For some reason - I always disliked that last part -

Guess those were my first UFOs - LOL - ;))

Anyway - back to the blue pants -

I reinforced the "inseam" seam at the fold line - and took out the seam below it -
I figured I would hide whatever I did in the "inside" seam as opposed to the one that shows on the "outside" of the pants leg -

Folded it up -

And up again -

All the way around - then realized that the "seam" part was funky -
Those raw edges needed to be fixed -

So I unfolded everything - and folded in the raw edges and stitched them down -

And folded them back up - not perfect - but tidier than the first try -

I started pinning from the "outside" leg seam -

Up to the "inside" seam -

And started back at the "outside" seam again -
And pinned in the other direction -
Until I got to the "inside" seam -
You can see the "gap" -

Basted that down - at the top fold -

Pressed it - to see if it was going to lie flat - and it did - YAY!! -

The inside looks a little funky -

But you don't see it from the outside - so it works for me- LOL - ;)

Blind-stitched the hem - of the first leg -

And then took a break for dinner and wrote up yesterday's post -

Today - I did the other leg and took some additional photos to fill in the blanks in the ones I took yesterday -

When I sewed the "basting" line - I did it the "old-fashioned" way -

Before we had "free-arm" sewing machines - we would turn the pants leg right-side out - and sew from the inside of the "tube" - like so -

I started at one side of the "gap" - and stitched around to the other end -

My sewing machine (Brother SQ9185) has a "blind-hem" stitch and a special "blind-hem" foot -

So I folded the basted hem the "recommended" way and used the metal bar in the middle to follow along the basted fold -

There's a "gap" in the stitching -

But it's not that noticeable from the "Right" side - and it's at the "inside" seam -
so no one is going to see it anyway -

All nice and pressed - and flat -

Take out the basting stitches -

And it's not perfect - but it's DONE!! - LOL - ;))

These are the trimmings from some of the pants that I hemmed. It's amazing to me the different lengths the various manufacturers make their pants. There was NO way I could just take an inch or two off the bottom since the "bottom" was different on all of them -

MEASURING TIP - When she first brought over the pants she wanted me to hem - I asked her to also bring a pair of pants that fit her - lengthwise. I measured the INSEAM on that pair - and used that as my guide. I turned each pair of pants inside-out and measured the INSEAM of each leg - individually - and drew a chalk line at the "bottom fold" line. Then I measured 3" down from that and drew the "cut" line. After cutting - that allowed me a double-fold 1-1/2" hem. I folded the cut edge up to the "bottom fold" chalk line and pressed it - then folded it again on the "bottom fold" chalk line - to enclose the cut edge. And it seemed to work - she said they all fit just fine - ;))

The Interweave Quilt also got another four rows sewn yesterday -

Today I want to play with the Interweave Quilt some more -

While I think about what I want to do with all of those yummy triangles that Frog Quilter so graciously sent me - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Playtime -

After another visit to the dentist - to remove the stitches and get the impression for the crown that will go on the tooth that had the root canal. Silly me - I thought we did the "impression" last time - and that I was going to get the "permanent" crown today - but nooooooooooooo - I got another "temporary" crown and next time I get the permanent one - oh, goody - ANOTHER visit to the dentist - my fave - LOL - ;))

The friend who took me to the dentist is the lady who asked me to hem her work pants. We were in a hurry after my appointment because she had somewhere else to be - so she took all of the pants home to try on - and said she would bring the blue ones back later in the afternoon -

So when I came home from the dentist - and with no blue pants to hem - LOL -
I decided to play with the scraps that Frog Quilter sent me - HERE -

This was waaaaaaaaaaaay more fun than hemming pants - LOL - ;))

The bag was filled with triangles - some in mirror image sets -
Perfect for Flying Geese "wings" -

Some were a little short of the 3" line -

But can be trimmed to the 2-1/2" line -

And then there was this pile -

Quarter-square triangles -
And I can tell because the "ravelly" edge is the long diagonal side -

And these were HST AND QST -
My first clue was the direction of the print -
And after I checked which edge "frayed" - I knew which was which -

These guys were "die-cut" - both dog ears are gone -
And they are perfect 3" - unfinished HST -
Which will finish at 2-1/2" -
But I consider the "finished" size irrelevant when I'm sewing -

I'm interested in the STRIP SIZE I need to get a unit to MATCH the one I HAVE -

The lines on the LEFT-EZE™ Rule correspond to the SIZE of the STRIP that you need to cut the unit - If the STRIP is 3" - it will line up with the 3" line -

So if I want to make some more HST to match these -
I know at a glance that I can use 3" strips -
No fussing with "finished" size or "sewn" size or any other size -
The only SIZE I want/need to know is the STRIP SIZE - LOL - ;))

So - after playing for a while - I got them all sorted -

And then I played with some more rows on the Interweave Quilt - and got four more done right about the time my friend brought back the blue pair of pants to be hemmed -

With a LOT of help from you guys - I finally figured out how to "make it work" - and I'll share it with you tomorrow - because I did a "test" on one leg - and it seemed to work - but this post is already long enough -

So - tomorrow I'll do the other leg and show you how it worked out -

After I take some photos to share - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -