Mx Amber Alex (she/it)<p>Okay, I need some experienced eyes on this absolute abomination of a diagram I just drew.</p><p>Some context first:</p><p>A while ago I bought a second-hand suit, if it even deserves that name. It's a horrible crime against the gods and feels like it escaped from a secret research facility where experiments on the lowest attainable quality of suits were conducted. The monstrosity in question is made out of a polyester–viscose blend with about as much drape as soaked printer paper, about as much opacity as water, and which is just overall the exact opposite of a delight to work with.</p><p>I've already set to work mitigating this suit's various flaws, such as adjusting the waistband size (done), letting out the waist (TBD), and re-attaching the buttons (also TBD). But there is one flaw that is incorrigible using conventional means:</p><p>The length of the trousers.</p><p>While this absolute dumpster fire of a suit (which I bought for 10€, probably twice as much as its actual value) has, surprisingly, plenty of seam allowance in the waist, seat, and outseams, there is damn near zero hem allowance. I can tickle another centimetre out of it maybe, but that's it; however I need <em>at least</em> ten to lengthen them to an acceptable length. As it is right now, they're calf-flashing highwater.</p><p>So, having exhausted all traditional methods, and what with the suit already being a flamboyant nightmare in purple, I hit upon the equally flashy idea of adding trouser turn-ups in a contrasting material. I settled on black silk. 4" tall black silk turn-ups.</p><p>(To soften the impact and make it less obvious that I'm just covering up the poor length, I will also cover the buttons in the silk and fashion turnback cuffs for the sleeves.)</p><p>At which point, however, I am facing the question: how to make those false turn-ups?</p><p>Since the silk is incredibly thin and lightweight, it can't hold up on its own. But real trouser turn-ups usually don't have a sewn-in interfacing, since real trouser suitings are strong enough themselves. So, after hours of trying to come up with anything, I hit upon the following, slightly convoluted but promising design, which I now solicit your opinion about.</p><p>The goals I have with this:</p><ul><li>make the leg 10cm longer</li><li>make the turn-ups stury enough to weigh down the leg and hold a good crease, because the poly–viscose garbage does neither</li><li>use as little silk as possibly</li><li>don't let any of the (purple but in a different shade) cotton canvas show that I'm using as interfacing (they didn't have black canvas)</li></ul><p>The idea is as follows:</p><ul><li>sew the required lengths of silk and interfacing (the cotton canvas) into rings of the required circumference</li><li>attach the interfacing to the end of the actual trouser leg; press the seam downwards</li><li>make a turn-up out of the interfacing.</li><li>edgestitch each fold to make sure it remains crisp (wool would hold the shape better, but they didn't have any at the store)</li><li>attach some black polyester crap to the outside of the leg, in that cuff valley. sew right sides together and fold down. make sure to attach it on the seam that joins the cuff to the leg or slightly higher</li><li>stitch the polyester down in the fold at the bottom of that cuff valley</li><li>wrap the polyester up the cuff-side of the valley, join with the actual silk, and wrap that over the top of the cuff, and all the way into the inside of the trouser leg</li><li>there, sew the interfacing and the silk together, turn the raw edge under, lay it over the seam allowance of the very first seam that's been pressed down, and fell down to the interfacing layer</li></ul><p>This way, the inside of the turn-ups (which won't be seen at all if possible) is faced with polyester instead of wasting silk on it, and there should be no visible seams on the outside except the inseam.</p><p>Am I making any sense here?</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/Sewing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Sewing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/Tailoring" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Tailoring</span></a></p>