Sewing Sequin Pants for Miss Pennsylvania Plus America

I recently had the great pleasure of sewing sequin pants for Miss Pennsylvania Plus America 2014, Katy Halter. In addition to being a beauty queen, she's been my best pal since age 12. Isn't she amazing?!

Katy will be wearing the pants as her "elegant pantwear" look at Miss Plus America this weekend in Atlanta, GA. Today I'll cover everything from showing off the finished pants, to how we worked to fit them remotely, to how I sewed the sequin fabric. It was quite an adventure!

The Fun Bit First - The Finished Pants! 

Katy has been a dear friend since the very first year I started sewing, and in those early years she was often the recipient of some truly atrocious handmade gifts. I was absolutely thrilled with how these turned out and glad I could make up for all those years of awful gifts with a lovely pair of pants!

On Sunday she took a trip to her professional seamstress to make sure all her outfits were ready to go for the pageant, and these photos are from that visit. The seamstress found that my pants didn't need any additional alterations (patting myself on the back, there).You'll see them paired here with the top Katy plans to wear.  Doesn't her bum look sensational?!

Fitting Remotely

With Katy living in Pennsylvania and me in Texas, I was a bit nervous about how we were going to fit them in the first place. A "bit" is an understatement. During the fitting process, I actually had a dream that I got married, and in a photo slideshow portion of the reception, there was a picture of Katy wearing the pants. I stood up and yelled, "I finished them!! AND THEY LOOK FANTASTIC!" Needless to say, I was very relieved we were able to find a way to fit while far apart! 

Part 1: Making the Muslin

To begin with, Katy shipped me a pair of pants that she liked the fit of. This is where we hit our first speedbump: the pants she shipped me were very stretchy, but the fabric had minimal stretch. So here's what I ended up doing: 

1. Laid out a big piece of paper on the floor and taped the pants to trace them. I tried as best I could to follow a tutorial from Cotton and Curls, but mine didn't turn out nearly as neat. 
2. Used a piece of wax tracing paper and tracing wheel to get to the crotch seam that I wasn't able to isolate. 
3. Measured the pattern piece and compared it to Katy's measurements. Adjusted the width accordingly for each piece, smoothing all the lines with my pattern drafting rulers. 
4. Added seam allowances. 
5. Repeated for the back pattern piece.

Here's what it looked like mid-way through.

Part 2: The Muslin Arrived

Next, I shipped the muslin to Katy to try on. Here's some pics of what we started with.

Initial fit problems:

• Bagginess at the front crotch
• A bit too loose at the waist, way too loose at the hip 
• Tight in the calves 

Part 3: Fitting via Google Hangout

By this point, Katy's mom had arrived in Pennsylvania. Having a fitting buddy is so important on pants! So now that the gang was all ready to go, we had a late-night Google Hangout session to do the fitting.

This worked out so well. 

1. Katy put the pants on inside-out. It's much easier to fit this way.
2. I directed her mom, Jessica, to pin and slash where appropriate until all the wrinkles and wobbly bits were worked out. 
3. Once we were happy with how it was looking, Jessica took a pen and drew a line on the front and back of everywhere she had pinned to remove excess fabric. 
4. For the calves where we needed more fabric, she split open the seam allowance. Jessica measured the distance up from the bottom of the leg that the split started, the length of the split, and how wide it needed to be (an extra 1/2"). I wrote that down.

Adjusting the Pattern

Katy shipped the pants back to me with all the markings from out fit session. I ripped them apart, ironed them, and set about the process of measuring all the changes. Here's the pattern laid out next to the muslin with the pen markings.

Then I traced the adjustments onto my pattern pieces with wax tracing paper and a tracing wheel. Again, I used the pattern drafting rulers to smooth everything out.

At this point, Oxford was growing a bit weary of the whole thing. Are you still with me?!

Constructing the Pants

At last!! To sewing the sequins! Now, the "correct" way to sew with sequins is to remove each one along the seam line, then hand stitch them back on after sewing to fill in any gaps. The way I did it was what my pattern making teacher would call "the rock 'n roll" way.

These sequins are 1/16th inch wide, and there was no way with the time crunch we had that I could remove them and hand stitch them back on. So I bravely cut them and serged them, very slowly, and crossed my fingers for the best. I only removed them at the invisible zip. Thankfully, this worked out just fine, although if the sequins had been any larger I don't think it would have.

Here's the cutting aftermath, with sequins everywhere!! Thankfully Oxford didn't get a hankering to eat them.

I underlined with a grey cotton that has a bit of stretch to it. The sequins are sewn onto a netting fabric, so an underlining was necessary to make them opaque and more comfortable. That's also why I went with a cotton-only waistband - sequins are scratchy, and Katy doesn't intend to wear these with a tucked in blouse anyway. I used ban roll in the waist in addition to interfacing to make sure it's nice and sturdy. 

To remove some of the bulk at the darts, I also cut off the triangle that the dart forms on the inside. I saw this technique in Adele Margolis's The Dressmaking Book. I likely should have removed the sequins there to start, which would have reduced my bulk as well. 

Here's a shot of the inside of the pants so you can see the underlining. I hand-stitched a blind hem, so you'll see the sequins there at the bottom, too. The waistband is slip-stitched to the inside.

Whew! And there you have it! From start to finish, how I sewed a pair of sequin pants for Miss Pennsylvania Plus America. 

I hope you'll head over to Katy's Facebook page and wish her good luck this weekend!