Welcome to week 7 of the McCall's Spring 2017 Sew-Along! This week I'm discussing the finishing steps, which are short and sweet. This is the last week before the big reveal and I'm getting really excited to see your finished overalls or pants!
Lets get started:
Step 62 shows sewing a button and buttonhole onto the waistband. I chose to do a different kind of closure, but the button is just as good. The object is a nice, secure closure to hold your pants up. Here you can see mine closed:
The next step is to sew metal buttons to the top of the bib. You're definitely going to want buttons with shanks for this area, called "tack" or "jeans" buttons. I bought a Dritz buckle and button kit at my local fabric store, but I cannot recommend the tack buttons from it.
One side went on crooked, and the fabric tore on the underneath side when I forcibly removed it with pliers. The other side had the nail bend and refuse to go in. After doing some research on the internet, I've decided to source some tack buttons from Ebay. I'm waiting to put on the strap buckles until I'm sure the shanks will fit them.
Also I'll be taking off the front bib facing and stitching on a new one to get rid of that hole. Gah, so frustrating! Hopefully y'all are having an easier time attaching your straps then I am.
The hemming is simple. Try them on and determine where you want the hem to fall. I'm going for a cropped skinny jeans look, so I'm hemming right above the ankle. I turned mine up and applied two rows of topstitching with my triple stitch setting. If you are doing the pants, you can do the double folded narrow hem on the bottom per the instructions.
That's it for this week! Hopefully I can source my tack buttons and get that area resolved before next week.
Elizabethmadethis on IG has a post a few weeks back....she used a kit from dimebuttons.com that has a plastic piece that holds the tack in place so that you can hammer it in straight. I'm definitely going to try that next time!!! I made a denim jean jacket last Sept and one of the tack buttons fell off as I was pushing it through the buttonhole (I had extras so I was able to redo it) and there are quite a few that I can feel are not straight, but they haven't fallen off.
ReplyDeleteArgh! It would bug me to death if my buttons weren't straight! I ended up finding some buttons with shaft backs that worked, but am still trying to decide if I want the typical tack kind. I'll keep your suggestion in mind. Thanks!
DeleteThis is trip back to my high school days with this pattern. My mom made these for me!
ReplyDeleteHaha, yes, I definitely had overalls in college. They were a loose fit, though, so these feel fresh to me.
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