it took a long time to put the zip in, mostly trying to work out how on earth it was supposed to go together. not helped by the fact that either i'd trimmed the wrong side short on the pattern or the zip instructions had the pieces going a different way. the main instructions say left and right refer to the garment when worn so i thought the left side meant the side on her left when she's wearing it rather than the left side when viewed from the front. anyway i tried to do it following the pictures but realised my pieces went the other way. once i'd worked that out it wasn't too difficult to work in reverse (after re-reading the instructions about 10 times) using a too long zip made it easier, i think. i just folded the sides over at the top, stitched in place and trimmed. i didn't sew a new stop at the top as - as far as i can tell - there's no way it could come off anyway. i was really pleased with how it came out and now i know how it goes together it should be quicker the next time.

then i really made a mess of the waistband :lol:

it's the same kind of problems i've had before - working on small pieces with multiple layers. it didn't help that i had such measley seam allowances and actually had to patch in an extra piece where i hadn't realised the bottom layer was short when i was cutting. all this could have been solved by not trying to squeeze it out of too little fabric.

i think the interfacing i used was a little too stiff, and i finally fell foul of the fabric which stretched and twisted out of shape. the topstitching is truly dreadful and it certainly didn't help that i used a stretch straight stitch. i quite like this as a finish elsewhere but since i don't need the stretch in that part of the waistband i'll definitely use a plain straight stitch on the trousers, then at least if it's just as wonky it won't show so much. i also made a bad stitch choice at the bottom of the fly - i ran a long bar tack over a perfectly adequate line of stretch topstitching and it's pushed and mangled the fabric and spoiled an up till then perfect zip.

one other thing to note for the trousers is the fly shield came out to short and didn't meet up properly with the waistband. i'm pretty sure i added SAs all the way round so i'm not sure why this is, but i think i have just enough fabric spare to cut a larger piece just in case.

i'm coming to the conclusion that this combination of pattern and fabric is really too advanced for me, unlike the dungies which went together a treat. but then again i'm never going to find my level unless i try a few things. i'll still go ahead with the trousers, if nothing else cos they're an 86 so i need to get them done while she still fits them.