Lederhosen for Mr. H

Y'all. These lederhosen. SHEESH, they were a project. Took me weeks. I used this Burda Style pattern, which was designed to be made with leather, or imitation leather, like traditional lederhosen. We could find neither the real or the fake stuff so we used corduroy, in a caramel-leather-esque color. This created a huge challenge because, duh, it was fabric not leather. The pattern and pattern steps were designed for leather, as in you can cut it and it wont fray. Problemo numero uno. I had to do a lot of inventing/flying by the seat of my pants to make sure this thing wouldn't unravel in the first 30 minutes of wear. Every raw edge was finished and I blew through an entire spool of caramel colored thread sewing all kinds of seams to make sure not only did it not fall apart, but it still was put together as if it was made of leather.

 I think Brendon may have enjoyed this pose a little too much.

Problem number two, leather is obviously thicker and stiffer than fabric, even corduroy, so it doesn't quite hang/fit the way it ought to. The biggest and most obvious spot is in the chest band between the suspenders, it is far too floppy for my taste. In hindsight, I would line the chest band and suspenders with interfacing to bulk them up so they hold their shape a bit more.

I did all of the top stitching in white and I love how it stands out against the corduroy. It forced me to sew in straight lines since they would be visible, which for some reason has always been a challenge for me, but I was mostly successful. I really like the effect though, I may have to do a little more contrasting top stitching in the future!

 Crotch shot much?

Yet another challenge this project presented was the lovely section in the directions that asked me to simply "machine embroider" the decorative elements. OH OKAY, let me just hop over to my embroidery machine... oh wait... At that point I almost threw in the towel. Almost. I pouted for little bit, took a day off, and then put my big girl pants on and got on with it. I drew all the designs by hand, made a pattern, traced them onto the fabric, and then slowly but surely embroidered it all by hand. And I'm pretty dang happy with how it turned out!

Do overs? Make it in leather. Make it a size smaller. Line the pockets with a lighter color. Splurge on better buttons. But all that said, I am very proud. This was definitely the most challenging thing I've ever sewn. But I did it and learned a ton. And now Brendon has German gear to sport this year at Wurstfest! And he just looks so dang cute!