pants | writinghouse

Moments before I realised I had sewn the fabric to my leg…

Previously on “Make it Sew!”: I drew around things then cut them out, before retiring to my bed with a large bottle of fine single malt. Questions? No? Excellent…

And now the conclusion:

Having (just about) come through the trauma of tracing the pattern and cutting the cloth, there now loomed the potential nightmare of actually sewing the pieces together.

As mentioned in Part 1, I tried the Snail’s Sewing-with-electrickery machine – turns out it isn’t like driving a car on my PS4 with a steering wheel and pedals because a) the machine doesn’t corner well and b) you can’t sew your thumb to the steering wheel using a PS4. Instead, I was to sew together my fabric pieces with the family hand sewing machine (because it is driven by hand rather than it sews hands, although I am pretty sure it could if push came to unfortunately timed shove).

This Singer machine is about 100 years old and has been in the Snail family (of which I am now honoured to be considered a part of) since it was new. Four generations have used this machine, but none have brought anything like the level of incompetence to its operation as I proudly have.

Turns out, I hadn’t sewed it to my leg. Just my fingers.

With some Snail-based help, I followed the instructions, backstitching seams (I actually know what that means!) and generally enjoying the whole experience. And the result? Pants. Well, I didn’t think it was that bad. No, I mean the result was a pair of boxer shorts, with an elasticated waist and everything…