My Pants - finishing

I want to finish these pants today so I can wear them out to dinner tonight.  We are going to a French restaurant with French friends. That will be fun.  I hope I can learn what are the best things to order, and get to taste everyone else's food!

The photo above show's my hands sewing on hooks and eyes. I always quadruple my thread when I do this for strength. Learned that when sewing in the professional costume shops in New York.

But ... I'm skipping ahead.  Yesterday I had reached the point of fitting my pants.  They fit a bit to loose for my taste, so I took in both side seams about 3/16" of an inch which makes about 3/4" total and about 3/4" in the back seam tapering to nothing at the crotch, for another 1 1/2" in the waist.

Then I picked out the stitches of the old seams, trimmed the extra fabric and serged all the seams.  Time to sew on the waist facing and finish the inside.

I graded and clipped the seams and under stitched the facing around the waist.

Now, the pattern calls for purchased bias tape to finished the bottom edge of the waist facing, but I plan to make my own.  

First I dig into my cabinet of cotton prints and other misc. fabrics.

First stitch the bias 1/4" from the edge.

Find a tiny black and white gingham and cut it into 1" bias. I am going to make a Hong Kong finish ... easier and less bulky.

Press it out flat, then bring it around to the back and stitch in the ditch (the crack where the two fabrics meet).

Hong Kong finish front and back

I have decided to make the back seam like men's trousers are made, meaning I will finish the waistband in two parts and then sew up the back seam all at once, with a 1" seam allowance.  The last thing is to fold down the facing and stitch in place.  This makes it super easy to make an alteration in the future, not that I'm planning on putting on any weight, but you never know ... 

Back seam still open.

Facing folded down with lots of pins for more stitching in the ditch.

Now stitched up and pressed.

Isn't the inside cute??? It's just for me!

OK ... sew on hooks and eyes with a button and button hole inside, like store bought pants.

AND THEY ARE STILL TOO BIG!!!!!!! What's wrong???

So, I try sewing a big tuck in the back crotch tapering down to the knee on the inseam AND try them on again.

I make this change on my pattern, cut off the excess.

They are fitting much better. It is a 1/2" tuck which means 1" off the pattern.

Then use this piece cut off the pattern to use as a pattern for cutting off the extra fabric from the pants, after I opened up all the seams first.

Much, much better ... just needs a hem now.  I will get my husband to take a photo tonight when I'm dressed nicely and I will post that tomorrow.

Isn't it weird ... when I started this, I though my crotch measurement was really, really long, but taking out the extra fabric in the crotch is what finally made me like the fit of these pants.

Well, I've marked all my changes on my pattern for the next pair, which I will share with you. Don't know when that will be, though.