First off – success enacting the method I tested towards last night, of doing the drawstring holes with a turned facing!
I ended up hand basting the waistbands to the waist before sewing it down. I wasn’t going to, but even pinning it on was a nightmare, as the tops of all the pieces kept rolling up, and I didn’t fancy trying to get that all aligned at the same time as feeding it to the machine. Even with ironing down the edges, and twice as many pins as usual, and basting by hand for control, it was a wonky line. I couldn’t even baste a straight enough line to keep it out of the way of the stitching line, although it did get a bit smoother toward the end. Thank god the fabric is stretchy and has a nap for obfuscation of mistakes. It definitely made me realize it would’ve been good to interface the whole waistband, and maybe even the top section of the legs.
The waistband seam in most places is 3 layers, 5 at the pockets, so thank god also for my walking foot. I hate creeping fabric layers, so the walking foot is maybe my favourite tool. The one thing it can’t nail is sewing right on the edge of the fabric (because one of the feet isn’t walking in that scenario!). So I skipped finishing the waistband seam, it will be enclosed and the knit velvet doesn’t unravel anyway. The basting, too, nearly all got enclosed, so I just snipped the stray thread and didn’t bother wrestling the rest out of the waistband seam.
My previous waistband maths suggested an elastic of 37-38″, so I cut 37.5″ plus 1″ for overlap. Zigzagged the overlap down; I might need to undo it later, depending on how I insert the elastic, but that won’t be too much of a problem. Tacked the waistband closed around the elastic in a few places so I could finally properly try them on. Which brings me to fitting – next post!
to the touch 