Sew Cargo Crazy - The Second Pair Simplicity 5102

Good morning everyone!

I'm a few days late with this post on the second pair of cargo pants.  But nevertheless.., 

It has been so much fun doing the Mood inspired cargo pants challenge with my friend, Rhonda!

We are in week 2 of our little "Sew Cargo" Challenge.  If you have been following my blog, Rhonda and I decided to do a cargo pants sew challenge for the month of July.  This challenge came about during a conversation about a newsletter emailed that we received from Mood featuring a cute pair of cargo pants.  We decided to use Simplicity 5102 to make three pants and one skirt.

Our first pair were featured on our respective blogs last Saturday.  Now, for this week we decided to spice it up a little.  Starting with our fabric.  We both selected stretch cotton twill from Mood:  for Rhonda - #326441-Navy on Arona Blue Bricks Printed Stretch Twill; for me #324496 Moonlight and Traupe Gray Block Printed Stretch Twill.  I love working with this fabric, and it is perfect for cargo pants.  Cargo pants are all about the pockets.  And you can never have too many when your hiking along a sight seeing trail or attending a summer neighborhood festival. Lots of places to store things to keep your hands free.  So why not add a few more pockets.  This time with zippers.  Like the inspiration pair, I also added zippers to the lower center front.  My zippers are functional.  The leg zippers can be unzip for a wider leg or zipped to make them tapered.

Again, I used View C of the pattern making the changes below:

• Added a waistband
• Added a front fly
• Lengthen the pant leg
• Tapered legs  from the hip to the hem
• Added 1" to the width of the upper front pocket.  I forget to mention this in my first review.

 

This cargo pant pattern is a winner!  Did I say that before?  Lol  I love it and will definitely make these again after the challenge is over.

BTW - Mood has truck loads of stretch twill available. 

If you are interested in my process for adding the zippered pockets and the pant leg zippers, check out my blog post, here.

Parting Shots:  It was a beautiful day in Veteran's Park.  Lovely flowers and everything is so lush and green.  The turtles were even sun bathing.

I am very happy with how my second pair of cargo pants turned out. The print of the fabric and the zipper detail make these pants pop.  Another great thing about them, there is secure pockets in the front as well as in the back.   For next week, I'll make a pair of cargo pants for my DD.  So stay turned.

Happy Sewing!
C

Zipped Pockets and Pant Leg - Sew Cargo Crazy - Tutorial

I wanted to post a little tutorial on how I made the zipped pockets for my second pair of cargo pants.  


Zipped Pockets -

It was so easy to add the pocket zipper detail.  Here's how:  

• First, I determined the length and width of the pocket and the zipper opening.  It's up to you on the size of the pocket.  I just cut some them and adjusted the width and length according to the area placed on the pants.  The front zipper is 6" and the back is 5".  
• Next creating the welt pocket window for the zipper.  I drew the rectangle on an interfaced "welt", about 2" longer than the zipper and 2.5" wide.  The height of the window is 1/2" with the cutting line in the middle, at the 1/4" point.
• I stitched on the drawn stitching line using machine stitch length at 2.  The stitching has to be exact with no back stitching.
• Slash along cutting line.  Turn the welt to the inside of the pocket. 
• Pressing is super important.  Open each of the long ends of the welt and press.  Then press the entire welt to the wrong side of the pocket.  You should have a nice rectangle opening for the zipper.  

• Evenly position the zipper from the wrong side of the pocket and pin it in place.

• Stitch the zipper in place.  I did two rounds of stitching to show up the contrasting thread.

• For the back pocket I added a stripe of fabric to the top using the wrong side of the fabric to create a contrast band. This creates the illusion of a top opening pocket.  It's actually stitched all the way around with the zipper being the actual opening.

• The final step is to secure the zipped pockets to the pants.
• *Note before I was happy with the opening of the pockets, I practiced a few times just to make sure. ;-)

Front Lower Leg Zipper -

These were added to emulate the inspiration pants.  I like the idea of being able to adjust the width of the pant.  The leg zippers should be placed and sewn before the front and back pant legs are sewn together.

• First, I had to determine the length of the pants.  To prevent them from bunching up, the hem should be at the ankle or shorter.  The top of the zipper is at the edge of the hem.
• Next, I marked the front center of the pant leg with pins the length of my zipper.
• Using the marked front center, starting at the lower edge each zipper tape is placed an inch apart (each 1/2" from the center).  For the opposite end of the zipper, it's is 2" apart (each 1" from the center).  Each side is pinned in place.
• Finally, sew two rows of stitches to secure zipper to the pants.  Now the front and back pant legs can be sewn together.

I hope this was helpful.  Stay tuned.  My next pair of cargo pants will post soon.

Happy Sewing!
Cennetta