Black Cotton Pants with White Topstitching – Seamwork Tessa Jeans

More Summer pants. This time I was using some light to medium-weight cotton that would keep me cool. But I also wanted them to have stand-out stitching. I’ve had this white topstitching thread for a while but never used it so I wanted to see how it would look.

Pants Pattern Used

Fabric

The fabric was 100% cotton from the Fabric Store and even though it doesn’t have a particular name or weight specified it feels slightly heavier than what I would expect from cotton shirting. So still on the thin side for pants (I prefer denim) but is a great weight for warmer 30C+ days.

For the pockets, I used quilting cotton with red poppies on black that was left over from a previous make.

Cutting Out

Very straightforward to cut out these pants as I had enough fabric to cut them out using a nap layout.

I cut out medium-weight interfacing for both sides of the waistband and both back pockets. The back pockets needed that extra support for the topstitching I intended on doing.

Fitting the Pants

None.

Sewing the Pants

The first thing to sew was the stitch details on the back pockets. I went through my printout of the 33 Back Pockets Designs from Closet Core Patterns. I used design #27 with a minor change, I excluded one of the lines that were an L on its side which was a bit too much for me. I folded the top hem of the pockets before marking the first line with chalk so the lower side was 6.75cm from the folded edge and the higher side was 4cm from the folded edge. I then eyeballed the length of the straight lines, but I did measure the 45-degree angle. The first line was topstitched. Then a mirror stitch of the two subsequent 6mm away.

The pants came together quite quickly, as they do these days for me.

I followed the instructions for the side split from  Wardrobe Dysfunction which I also used recently in my Navy Ripstop pants. Having the instructions fresh in my mind I was able to tweak things a little bit to give it a better outcome. The inner seam was sewn. I marked a line 2cm above the raw edge of the hem of the pants, and again 12cm. The hem was then folded so that the raw edge touched the 2cm line and pressed, creating a 1cm hem. Then folded again so the newly folded line touched the 12cm line and pressed. I went on to follow the instructions from Wardrobe Dysfunction.

Pants Review

I’m happy with how these turned out. The white stitching on the very black fabric reminds me of chalk on a freshly washed blackboard – it is a very strong contrast. This contrast does show how “fluffy” this topstitching thread is, giving me the impression that it’s not the strongest thread. I’ve used the same topstitching thread that also came from AliExpress on jeans and it hasn’t broken yet, but it makes me a bit suspicious. Considering how much I have enjoyed doing topstitching over the last few years I will need to find another type of thread that isn’t as expensive as the 30m Gutermann topstitching thread but of a better quality than this.

Not quite sure what I think of the hem though. I feel it needs the white topstitching to finish it off like you would have on jeans. But as there is a side split on these pants, the line of stitching for the hem is actually 5.5cm from the finished edge and having a line here would just look odd to my eye. I will have to give this some thought and do some googling as I have plans on making another pair of pants this length soon.

After wearing them for a few weeks I’m finding that the waistband is folding in half around my body. Even though I used a medium interfacing on both sides of the waistband the fabric isn’t quite heavy enough to stay upright. When I make pants again of this weight I will look at a heavier weight interfacing or apply an extra layer of medium interfacing on both sides of the waistband.

In these photos I’m wearing the black pants with a recent make, my Blue Chambray Simplicity 2365 Shirt.

Pattern: Seamwork Tessa Jeans, Size 18 | Pattern Review
Fabric: Black 100% cotton from The Fabric Store in Adelaide – AU$18.00
Lining: Red Poppies on Black 100% cotton from Melanns in Adelaide – AU$2.50
Interfacing: Black Stayflex Interfacing from The Fabric Store – AU$3.00
Buttons: 2cm Black button from my STASH
Zip: 25cm YKK Black Zip from my STASH
Sewing Machine Thread: Gutermann 000 (Black), Rasant 120 X2000(White) in the bobbin for topstitching – approx AU$0.40
Topstitching Thread: White Topstitching Thread from AliExpress – approx AU$0.10
Overlocker Thread: Serafil 120/2 Col 1282 (Grey), Woolly Nylon (Black) from – approx AU$0.50
Cost of Pants: AU$24.50

Sewing Machine Settings on my Janome Memory Craft 3500:

• Sewing Machine Needle: Schmetz Universal 80
• Seams: Tension of 4.0, Stitch Length of 2.6
• Topstitching Machine Needle: Schmetz Universal 90
• Topstitching: Tension of 2.0, Stitch Length of 3.0
• Buttonhole: Tension of 4.0, #7, Width 5.0, Length of 0.3
• Bartack: Tension of 4.0, Zig Zag #11, Width 2.0, Length of 0.7

Overlocker Settings on my Janome 644D:

• Needle: 2x Schmetz Super Stretch HAx1 SP 90
• 4 Thread – 2x Charcoal Serafil in the needle, 2x Black Woolly Nylon in loopers
• Thread Tension: 3.0 3.0 2.0 4.0
• Stitch Length: 2.5
• Differential Feed: 1.0