How to move front pockets

I should have posted this weeks ago, but, well, life has kind of gotten in the way.  Here's a link to the original post so you can tie the two together.  So, this is how I move front pockets when tailoring a pair of pants.

As you are marking the cutting line up the leg put those marks on the pockets.

Transfer those lines to the fabric of the pant legs to the seam where the pocket joins the front.  Then get your handy-dandy seam ripper out and CAREFULLY remove the pocket unit from the pant leg.

 Then pin the pocket back in to match up on the new cutting line.  Now you can cut all the excess fabric off the front pant leg using the pocket edge as your cutting edge.  You will be able to see where any notches need cut or stay-stitching needs done.

On this pair of pants the pockets were twisted.  Probably because the fabric was off grain and after they were washed and all the sizing was removed the fabric returned to its natural lay.  Another reason to always prewash your fabric.  I did have to take the pockets apart, re-cut and re-build them so they would lie flat in the garment.  Not something you normally have to do.

Lay the right side of the pocket facing against the right side of the front, pin and sew.  I usually set the pocket on the inside of the front where it goes and then flip it to the front to make sure I putting the right pocket on the right side of the pants.  Cause, well, I've been wrong before.

Clip any corners, flip, iron, top stitch, and press everything flat.  Pin the pocket edges to the side of the pants and to the waist of the pants, then baste the pocket edges where they meet the sides and waist of the front.  Bar-tack (usually a narrow, short [quarter to half inch] zig-zag) at the bottom of the pocket opening and at the top of the pocket opening.

As you can see the side of the pants is a smooth line, but at the waist I have a little of the pocket peaking above the waistline.  This had to do with the way Hubby's pants needed to be tailored.  (Interesting note:  less than 12% of the people in any given size are actually those measurements.)  I just trim that little bit off.  To me having the side of the pocket lying right is more important than that little bit at the top of the pocket that needs trimmed off.

Now you just finish sewing the pants back together!

 I hope everybody is having a good day!

Judy

my heart is broken

My heart is broken; my compadre in life is gone.

Hubby passed away Friday morning sometime between 9:00 am and 11:30 am while we were taking a nap after a night where neither one of us slept well.

I relieved I don't have to watch him struggle to make himself understood.  But I miss his rapier wit.

I am relieved he no longer hurts so much he had to have help most days to get out of his chair.  But I miss his gentle smile.

I relieved I don't have to watch him struggle after the gout crippled his hands so bad he couldn't do the simplest tasks some days.  But I miss his touch.

I am relieved he is no longer in so much pain he couldn't lay down to sleep.  But I miss the mischievous twinkle in his brown eyes.

 My heart is broken; my rock in life is gone.

Judy

my take on a jellyroll race quilt

This is my take on a jellyroll race or lasagna quilt.  I wanted to do one and I needed to make a quilt for a wedding gift for a friend's granddaughter so away I went.

I studied several you-tube videos.  Starting with the Missouri Quilt Co. video with a white block spacer between each new strip.  When I got to thinking about how I would construct and quilt a king-size quilt I decided to turn it into a giant nine-patch.  I decided that a random placed white patch might not look so hot so I went with the original jellyroll race quilt look.

A 40-strip jelly roll will make approximately 50" by 64" quilt.  So how would you expand it to get a king-size quilt?  Web surfing to the rescue, of course!  And now that I want to write it up I can't find the you-tube videos that explained how to make different sized quilts! Damn-it!

EDIT:  Found It! Jean JellyRollQueen 
                            Part 2

Any way, I wanted to make an 84" by 84" center. The formula is to take inches wide times 32 rows, then divide by the length of the strips for how many strips in the main body of the quilt.  Next for the 20 inches left over which is 10 rows do the formula again to know what you need for the added length of the quilt you want to make.  Okay, clear as mud, right! LOL!

Main Body    84 x 32 =  2688 / 41 = about 66 strips (round up)
Second Half  84 x 10 = 840 / 41 = about 21 strips (round up)
Add 66 strips + 21 strips = 87 strips of 2 1/2" fabric.
The advice of the lady who posted the you-tube videos was to add a few extra strips so you wouldn't be short.

This lady's advice on adding the extra strips to get the length of quilt you wanted was to add them evenly to the top and bottom, in my case five rows top and five rows bottom.  Just to make sure I had enough (cause I'm paranoid like that) I stopped and measured my strips when I had sewn the first seam in the first batch of strips together.  I was too long and trimmed it back to the size I needed.

This is the back.  I randomly sewed strips I had cut from the stash together.

  
Cut and turned as a nine-patch

See those two yellow strips that are side by side?  That's the middle of your long strip of fabric, which would be no big deal if you were leaving as one big piece.  However, I wanted to make blocks, so I picked off that bottom row and re-sewed it to the top of that block.

This is the front.  I decided to sort the fabric into color families and I changed up the construction, too.  After I had sewn the long strip in half, I cut the strip in the lengths I need for the width of the quilt top.  Then I sewed the top in three sections before cutting it into my blocks.  I think it turned out better.  I didn't have any spots where the fabric doubled over on top of it self.

 This is the nine-patch layout of the top.

I didn't like the original border fabric I had picked out so I switched to this black print.  Better but still not the pop I was looking for.  I decided to use cornerstones to finish the borders.  After sewing them on I liked the square-in-a-square the best.

I'm thinking I should have used black strips to set the quilted blocks together.  That might have helped the over-all look of the quilt by giving the eyes someplace to rest from busyness of the quilt.

Will I make another jelly roll/lasagna quilt?  Only if it is in a size I could comfortably quilt as one piece in my machine, so that would mean probably nothing bigger than a twin or maybe a double with a traditional weight batting.

So the label is on and the quilt is ready to be shipped.  Now to finish up another quilt I'm working on for a wedding in October.

Everybody have a good day!

Judy

a moment of inspiration

I think I may have salvaged the quilt I'm working on.  I had a moment of inspiration when I woke up yesterday morning and it looks like it might work.  Yeah!

Back to it.

Everybody have a good day!

Judy

i'm alive and bored

I'm alive and bored to tears with the quilt I'm working on.  It is bordering on ugly to me and I can't think of a way to save it.  The quilt should have been finished last week and mailed by now.  I can't bring myself to finish it.  I need to slog on through because I have another one due out of here by the middle of October.  Then I have another one I've been working on for a while I want to finish before Christmas and get out of here also.

I'd rather be knitting.  I found a pattern for an afghan I really like how it is coming together.   I am using three colors:  green, white and blue.  Other than the 20 skeins of yarn to work the afghan in intarsia, it is an easy knit.

Hubby speech is getting better as time passes.  And so long as we don't OD on pork products his gout wouldn't be flaring up.  Some days I worry about us!

Missing Sister Suzy as she is back in Kansas for her last semester of college.  She called and ask for a care-package of Chocolate Gummy Bears and Tiger Sauce.  We will have to wait until it cools off before we can ship the chocolate.

I hope every one is having a good day!

Judy

I'm not Job

God, I am piss-off at you!  After the second day of orientation for hubby's teaching position after being laid-off for four years, he comes home and has a stroke between 4:30 and 5:00.  I am grateful the stroke didn't happen while he was driving home or while he was a sleep. And I am grateful it wasn't worse, that it has only affected the muscles in his throat and face on the right side.  But really, enough is enough!  How about a break here?  I'm not happy about You playing craps with my life like you did Job's!  Oh, and thank-You for not killing off all my loved ones!

UPDATE: 8/9/2014 Hubby is home and we are doing speech and physical therapies.   He is still pretty Dutchy and the Cardiologist says he has a weak heart muscle so it is gentle cardo until the heart is built back up.

hubby is losing it

Hubby is losing it!  His dress clothes are waaayyy too big.  He hasn't really wore his dress clothes since he was he was laid-off four years ago.  I knew his dress clothes were getting loose, but oh-my!  He has to hang on to them to keep them up!  LOL

He had an interview and since we are flat broke, I sat aside my quilt and went to work.  I have two pair of pants remodel.  The great part is he signed the contract this morning!  Yeah!  So I have to get with it and finish up the rest of his dress pants.  

I'm going to let his dress shirts go until after his pants are done.    I'm not real sure I want to tackle his suit jacket.  (I done it before.  I made his three-piece suit for our wedding.)  Maybe, after he has worked a couple of months we can go shopping for a new suit jacket and donate his older one.

For those who have never tailored a pair of men's pants here is how I do it.  First thing I do is have whomever try on the garment and kind of look over where the problems are.  The next thing I do is get my handy-dandy seam ripper and CAREFULLY remove most of the waistband.  I leave the very front attached.  I don't want to mess with the zipper if at all possible.

Have them put the garment back on and start pinning out the excess fabric making sure back pockets and such stay in the right spots on the body.  There are two ways to do this.  One is wrong side out, which is easier.  However, the correct way is right side out, as they would wear the garment.  This takes into account the fact that no body is symmetrical.

Have them take the garment off.  Get a note pad and start measuring what you pinned out and where; then writing it all down.  If you don't have to take out more than an inch out of a seam you won't need to use your seam ripper to remove seams.  However, if you need to take up side seams you are going to have to move pockets.  So get your seam ripper out and CAREFULLY start ripping the seams out.  Make notes as to where all the bar-tacks are; any top stitching you take out.  Pay careful attention to how the garment was sewn together and how the pockets were built.  You will not be able to move the back pockets if they are plackets but most front pockets can be.

One other thought, leave any belts loops attached to the body of the pants if you can, because they won't move more than an inch ether way when you get ready to reattach everything.  I know weird!  You take out nine inches in the waist and the belt loops don't move that much.

 These are his pants ripped apart; the seams and pockets pressed flat with the notes.  I pinned the front side seams together and the back side seams together so I could mark and cut the sides the same.  I did not rip the inseams out or the back center seam.

 I got my tape measure out and marked where I need to cut based on my notes.  I then moved the pins just inside my cutting line and cut.  I was feeling quite brave and did not do the prudent thing on this pair.  Which is to baste up the seams and have him try the pants on, one more time.  It may come back to haunt me when he tries them on and they are too tight!
 

You can see where I fiddled around with the lines trying to get a smooth transition from one angle to another.  You can also see where I moved the marks for the pockets to the new cutting line.  The pockets in these pants were easy to move because they were side seam pockets.  I used a pleat to take out the extra fabric in the front of the pants as that is the style of pants Hubby finds most comfortable.  One pleat goes on the fold line up the front of the pants.  The two-pleat style goes either side of the fold line.

Put the pockets back on with any top-stitching and bar-tacking required.  Do the center back seam with any top-stitching needed.  Sew up side seams and any seam finishing.  Add any top-stitching required to the side seams.  Pin the waistband from the front to center back.  Pin where you need to take out the excess with a seam.  Trim the excess out and sew the waistband on.  Reattach the belt loops and you are done.

The other way to get rid of the excess fabric in the waistband is to take off whichever end of the waistband would be the easiest to rebuild.  If you have a riveted button you would take off the buttonhole end and make a new buttonhole.  On these pants if I were to do it this way I would have taken off the button end.  Trimmed the excess off and reattached the button.  The reason I don't do it the 'correct' way is the zipper and the buttonhole!  It can be a total nightmare!  The other way is easier for me.  And if they  wear a belt, who's to know?

Hey, everybody have a good day!

Judy

Update: The post on how to move the front pockets is here, if you need it.