Marfy Summer Pants Construction 1

For a while now I have had a mental image of the "capsule" wardrobe that I will take on summer holidays with me.  Shame is, this mental image includes quite a few items that I have not made yet, including a pair of white linen pants.

I chose a Marfy pattern for these pants.  These pants have a angled waistband, wide on one side, narrow on the other, with a buckle closure.  The pant legs have front seams.  Instead of a front fly, the pants have a button opening in line with one of the front seams.  There are welt pockets on the front and back waistband, but these are shown on the pattern pieces as curved openings, not straight ones.  Also, the pocket pieces hang below the waistband, which I am not sure how to address,  If you are having trouble picturing these pants, check out Sigrid's blog post where she drafted her own version.

I never appreciate how much I use the pattern instructions until they are not there!  And seam allowances...whoa, no seam allowances means a lot more concentration during cutting.  I pondered the construction of these pants, then cut them out a few weeks ago.  I practiced a few different types of welt pockets, and then life got in the way and I didn't get to them.  Now I have to rethink all that construction and only the sewing gods know which welt construction method I decided to go with.

First of all, the front pocket construction.  You would think that this would be straightforward, but something has gone wrong.  I sewed the pocket bag with french seams, but I think to do this, I should have made the pocket extend beyond the opening towards the CF.  It is a little bodgy there, but that will be in the seam allowance, so I am going to ignore it.  It also looked like I attached the side piece slightly off-grain, so I have thread traced the seam allowances to make sure that the size of this piece is right, even if the grain is slightly off.  After making these errors, I went back and tailor-tacked a lot more of the marks to assist with construction.

 

I have used a nude coloured lining for the upper part of the pocket bag, to minimise show-through in the white fabric.

 

Then onto the pants opening.  This all went better than expected.  I have lined the opening facing with nude lining to prevent show-through here as well.

This inside view shows that everything fits together nicely.  The edges of the pocket sit neatly under the "fly" extension.  I catch-stitched the fly extension to the pocket bag.

Then the front seams, inner leg seams and crotch seam and I have something that resembles a pair of pants.  Next up, I will start on the waistband details.

Typically, I am too lazy to post construction photos, but I have put these up today because I need some help.  What colour findings should I use?  White buttons would keep it all sleek, but should I be making a feature of the unusual opening?  Navy buttons would give a jaunty, nautical look, but I am not the jaunty, nautical type.  Maybe wooden buttons could be considered neutral?  I went to buy metallic button, but Spotlight failed to deliver (there is a little local independent haberdashery but I have not had a chance to visit).  I could use jeans buttons.  I need to decide on this before I continue construction, because I need to decide on buttons or snaps for the welt pocket flaps.

 

 And then, what about the buckle?  I have a lovely wooden buckle, but I don't know how it will cope with washing, and being white pants, these are going to need washing.  I also have a bodgy metal one.  Should I cover a buckle?  I think I have a threads article on how to do this.  Can anybody recommend a buckle supplier?

So, this is one way to make summer sewing a drawn out affair!