Sewing Sunsets

When I first started sewing, I was fairly successful sewing blouses, dresses, and skirts for my daughter, who was five years old at the time.  However, when I decided to make my first pair of pants for her, I got totally confused!  The crotch seam just looked funny and it took me a while to figure out the pattern directions.   Thankfully, I learned the easiest way to sew that crotch seam and that’s usually the way I sew pants, unless I’m convinced that the pattern has a really good reason for giving different instructions.  During those days, my daughter mostly wore dresses–especially jumpers in the winter and sundresses in the summer.  However, there was a very cute jumpsuit pattern that she liked, so I made many of those as well.  There were no buttonholes, buttons, or zippers, so it was a fairly easy pattern.  Of course, there was that crotch seam…..

I have learned through the years that making pants for adults is different than sewing pants for children.  Correct fit is very important for adults and pants are one of the most difficult things to fit correctly, so it might be wise to do a little research on getting correct fit for adults when sewing pants.

Sewing pants or shorts really isn’t that hard if using the method I’ll describe here.  The most confusing part is the crotch seam and that can be conquered by beginning sewers as well.   The easiest way to sew pants is to sew two pants legs.  Sew the inner leg seam and the side seam for each leg of the pants or shorts.  You will have two separate pants legs.

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The picture on the left above shows a back leg and front leg of a pair of shorts.  The short inside leg seam is the seam that will be sewn first, and the long side seam will be sewn next.  The picture on the right shows the shorts legs that have been sewn together.  In this picture, the shorts leg on the left is wrong side out; the leg on the right is right side out.

Notice the “U” shape of the crotch in the picture on the left.  This is the shape the crotch will be when sewing the pants legs together at the crotch seam.  I promise it’s not as confusing as it sounds!

 Insert one leg of the pants/shorts into the other(leg) and sew the “U” shape of the crotch seam.  Make sure that you have the right sides of the fabric together before sewing!    Once this seam has been sewn, turn the pants/shorts right side out and you have a pair of pants!

There is a more detailed tutorial (with lots more pictures) beginning here at the main website: www.sewseamless.com/Page33.html  

I had fun making these little shorts.  My original plan was to donate them to charity, but after I had them finished, I noticed a stain on one leg, so I won’t be donating these.

Sewing pants really isn’t that hard.  It just takes a little practice.  And who minds practicing when it means having quality sewing time?!