From the Editor: Sheila Grant, a local resident has offered to share her knowledge of sewing with us. :) Sheila has happily posted instructions along with pictures on her face-book page and has generously offered to share them on SGC also.  I love to create, but at times feel frustrated because I don’t always know what I am doing. I like to sew, but I am not very good at it, so Sheila’s offer is gratefully accepted by me, and we both hope her knowledge and talent may help many others out there too. :) Here’s what Sheila has to say about her love of sewing, along with her first project for us a pair of Pyjama pants… :)  Please feel free to ask questions or make comments in the comments section below… :) These will be passed on to Sheila and we are happy to post her answers here. 

 “Sewing is my passion which ignited when my children were young and I would make them all kinds of fleece hats by tracing saucers from the cupboard. Then I would attach scarves to hats so my daughter would not lose them and sew little design embellishments using jewels for the front of her hats and mittens. I would do Christmas designs and flowers and snowmen etc. All of a sudden all her classmates wanted them and their mom’s would even offer to purchase my hats but I gave them away as gifts because they were her friends. I used to stay up till 1pm finishing off Halloween costumes for their parties the next day and later, donated about fifty aprons to the local public school for their Healthy Snack Program ran by my friend Ann. At first we had no material so I improvised and asked the ladies to donated unused bedsheets for the program. It was a success and there they were running around the school serving healthy snacks in my bedsheet aprons. Later when a huge supply of cotton weave in various colours and designs was donated, the ladies still preferred to wear my bedsheet aprons because they were not afraid to get them dirty…lol Not long after I joined my local college for Sewing and Pattern Making and have been at it ever since. I still have some advanced courses to take but that will come in time and maybe costume design too. I love creating! I hope to inspire anyone who loves sewing to try these simple lessons I have provided.

Prior to cutting pattern piece make sure that your raw edges match up to the design evenly so that your seams join evenly.
Measuring grain line consecutively to align with raw edge will cause the gravitational line to pull evenly from the hip area to floor.You want those pants to flow nicely and this is the stage to cause that to happen.
Grain line consistent with raw edge. In this case it was approximately 6″. From top to bottom evenly.
So now that back pant panel has been cut I have pinned the centre back seam to crotch point and will now sew a 5/8 inch seam allowance.
5/8 inch seam allowance.
I am doing a closed seam and now serging the raw edge closed.
This is a closed seam. Notice I smoothed and blended the point into a smooth transition at waist band.
Notice how my centre back seam matches the plaid together nicely. This was the very first stage prior to cutting pattern piece where I matched up the raw edges (preparation is key in sewing).
After sewing inside seam and outside seam together of front and back pattern, make sure that leg length is even.
Trim off uneven bit at leg length and then you are set to measure hem allowance.
I am using 1.5 inch hem allowance per industry standard. But first you have to serge the raw edge. (If you don’t have a serger I recommend you get one but a zig zag would be ok to finish edges).
Serge raw edge of waist and I am using a 1.5 inch pocket to encase a one inch woven non-roll elastic waistband.
This is a stop sign used to signal a stop during the sewing. In this case I need to stop approximately two inches either side of front centre seam so I can insert the waistband.
Stopping here.
I recommend using a non-roll elastic band so it stays secure in the waist pocket for comfort. Place a large safety pin at the top of band and get ready to run it through the waist pocket.
Done. Now close safety pin and go try on your new pants and adjust the measurement around the waist for comfort.
Once measurement establised stitch the band closed. I usually just stitch up and down and across to secure this are.
Now that band has been stitched closed sew the centre front pocket shut.
I like to stitch an X on centre back seam so that you know which is the back since I do not use labels.
Then I go around to all the seams and stitch vertically over top just to secure the band further from rolling.
Viola… A comfy pair of Pj bottoms for you.. :)

 

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