(no subject)

I finished the waistband of my shorts this morning, so all that’s left to do is the hand sewing. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off me. They’re not perfect, but they’re done.

I think this part of the project was harder than the other three put together. First, I don’t like fusible interfacing, so I had to figure out a way of strengthening the waistband without it. The last time I made something with a fitted waistband, I used a second layer of fabric as interfacing. But I didn’t think to sew the two layers together, so when I folded them in half, the “interfacing” sort of crumpled up inside the waistband. I didn’t want that to happen again.

Second, I don’t trust machine-made buttonholes. (At least, not mine — they tend to be awful.) So I wanted to make a bound buttonhole, instead. Unfortunately, Mama couldn’t walk me through it, the way she did with the fly — she’s never made bound buttonholes. But she has made welt pockets, which are sort of like bound buttonholes that got in the way of a bad Engorgement Charm when they were kids. And I found some good directions online. (I’ll have to hang on to those.) And I just kept at it till I got it right. Of course, it took me a couple of tries. (All right — more than a couple.) But it was worth it — this buttonhole looks a million times better than my last one.

And finally, I had to sew the waistband onto the shorts. That’s what I did this morning. I had to do the buttonhole first — I found that out the hard way. But that meant I couldn’t alter the waistband on the fly — if I made the side seams smaller, I couldn’t move the buttonhole a little to the right to make up for it. That’s why it isn’t centered over the zipper, the way it’s supposed to be — I had to make the side seams smaller if I wanted to get the waistband on at all. I’ll have to remember that when I’m making the orange and green pants. (That, and that attaching the waistband is easier if you use a zipper foot.)

Still, I’ll probably finish the shorts tonight or tomorrow. I’m not going to let a slightly off-center buttonhole harsh my squee.