Doin' de Gheyn - Volume VIII

Pants (pænts)

adj. (British slang) Rubbish, no good, bag of shite. 

It's funny, really; here I was, sooooooo proud of my work on these breeches.  Then I pick 'em up and discover 

I SEWED THEM THE WRONG WAY ROUND.  

My lining was doing all manner of ridiculous things.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong.  Then I noticed I'd sewn the left lining leg backwards.  So I had to rip out three (3!) HAND-SEWN BACK-STITCHED seams.  

Need I mention how big a pain in the arse that was?  Ooo.  Slightly peeved, I was.  That took me forever.

Those of you who sew by hand know how time-consuming it can be.  You also know how farking difficult it is to remove a back-stitched seam; you can't just hit it with a seam ripper.

You might be wondering what I was doing back-stitching the lining seam.  Simple, really.  I used to sew all my seams with a running stitch.  But I've been discovering that the running stitches are gapping too much for my taste and proper textile engineering; the seams not only look bad but break easily.  Back-stitching is much stronger, addressing both symptoms.

I've also begun the process of edging the knee cuff with red piping.  That's another PITA, as it requires two seams for one bit of cloth.  I'm beginning to question the wisdom of wanting to edge everything in a contrasting color...

Pictures will be forthcoming as soon as I can figure out what Robin did with them. 

Until next time, dear readers, I remain

Your Obedient Servant,

Bob