new and improved

New and improved white trousers. I was told they were breeches, but really they were trousers so I am making them trousers. The new fabric is much better quality, and not see through which is very important in my opinion when it comes to men's trousers and white ones in particular. On the downside, it is a bit spongy and thick which will mean a bit of a challenge on the placket.

Apologies for the picture quality. Sigh :/

Here I go, made a pattern, got it cut out, and made up the front placket while I waited for Steve from pro Sewing to come by and service all my machines.

I wasn't going to change the overall styling, which is why I didn't make a traditional underlap for the fall front. That entails a set of closures under the fall and in this stretch fabric it would show. Anyway it is good to try new things. This is what it loooks like finished from the inside.

I sewed a regular seam on the fall facing and pressed and stitched the seam allowances open to keep the centre front flat. The main seams will be serged together.

Interfacing is the trick here. I used a lightweight tricot to stabilize the fronts at the top of the waist and down the stitching area for the placket including the area where the final placket would be stitched. I also interfaced the complete fall facing piece, and added a strip of interfacing on the underlap to support the button stitching area.

This is pretty much the same as making a shirt sleeve placket. If you wanted to, you could make the underlap pattern piece wide enough to come all the way to the centre front and then fold back all the way to the side seam. Then you could have a button closure on the underlap.

This is the finished placket from the outside. It was a bit of a pain to do because the fabric was spongy, and I didn't want to bag out the shape with self fabric (too bulky). If I did it again, I would bag out the shape with a very thin piece of cotton. As it was I marked the placement of the triangle on the fronts, and folded the edges in and then edge stitched them down.

I made sure that the underlap piece was long enough to support the topstitching of the triangle. So there is interfacing, and interfaced fabric behind that topstitching.

Now, I just need to sege them together. I am using my domestic serger with four threads for this. Attach a waistband with inner elastic, choose some buttons and make some button holes.

Then they will be finished.