I want to wear these forever

What's that, you ask?  The curling pants are finally finished.  And even though they haven't been tested in the large fridge that is the curling rink, The Sewing Lawyer predicts that they will be quite up to the task of keeping her warm, and not gapping or binding while the curious posture required in curling is attempted.

Behold

I've been wearing a pair of cast-offs since starting to curl a couple of years ago.  They are RTW, ripstop nylon lined with some kind of black synthetic knit fabric with a plush surface.  These pants sport a gathered elastic waist and cuffs, and have side zippers.  Ick.

Last year at Fabricland, the great Canadian chain store, they had a rather nice and very beefy ponte-type knit.  I couldn't resist and a pant length came home with me.  In stash, a mistake from on-line shopping years ago at Wazoodle, was quite a lot of of black synthetic (supplex nylon) knit fabric with a plush surface.  It's softer than the lining of my RTW pants, by a factor of 10 or so.

I muslined the interesting pants from the December, 2009 issue of Burda Magazine.  Here's the line drawing.

The curved seam goes around to the back where it incorporates the dart shaping needed, and makes a little yoke.

I left off the pockets.

The biggest challenges in making these were to ensure the seams would stay flat and smooth in both lining and outer fabric.  I sewed the pants entirely on my sewing machine, using a 1.5x1.5mm zig zag stitch which is stretchy but thin enough to press open.

For the outer layer, I topstitched using the same tiny zig zag stitch before trimming the seam allowances.  In the lining, I flattened the seam using a 3-step zig zag, and trimmed the seam allowance very close to the stitching.  This worked really well.

It's hard to take a good picture of a really black garment, and the camera finds every bit of lint!

To keep the waist and fly front relatively bulk-free, I used a cotton woven fabric for the waistband and fly facings, and the fly shield.  I also interfaced the outer waistband to reduce stretchiness almost to zero there.

Pretending to skip

This pattern has a nicely contoured waistband pattern with side seams and CB seam for fitting. I used my fold before stitching, always-perfect waistband technique, illustrated here, except this was the quick and dirty (i.e. not couture, no hand-sewing) version.  After the facing is pressed and folded as illustrated in the earlier post, pin it securely to all edges, and simply topstitch around the entire waistband by machine.  I used the little zig-zag again for consistency.

A jeans button (hammered in, no sewing!) and machine sewn hems through all layers completed these pants.

They are warm.
And they are SO COMFY!
I'm ready!