What seams to use in sewing insulated pants

PostedApr 5, 2021 at 2:25 pm

I’m thinking of making insulated pants with climashield apex. It will consist of a shell and a liner and the insulation. The shell and liner has 4 parts (front left, front right, back left, back front). Is this the general idea:

1. Cut climashield to match 4 parts of the liner.

2. Sew the climashield to each of the 4 liner parts along the edges only. (Using either newspaper to back the climashield so it doesn’t get eaten by the foot). Should I use a straight stitch here?

3. Now, you have 4 parts climashield/liner combo.

4. Sew front left to back left using regular straight stitch, then flip and sew another straight stitch, to create a “French Seam”, with the seam flap pointing inside (to the insulation section)

5. Repeat, using french seams all around the liner. You now now have a inner pant with climashield attached.

6. Sew the 4 parts of the shell together, using Flat Felled seams.

7. You now have a shell, and an insulated liner. Attach liner to the shell, only at the top (waist) and bottom (pant leg hole). No stitching required on the sides.

I haven’t included the elastic yet, I’m not sure how to do that. But my questions are, does the process above sound right so far? Are the seam choices right? Do I need a zigzag stitch? My machine has a hard time with zigzag stitching on light fabrics, so I’d prefer to do only straight stitches if possible.

Jerry Adams BPL Member

PostedApr 5, 2021 at 3:18 pm

I made some apex pants but I hardly ever wear them. Maybe if I did more cold weather.

Maybe this would have a useful idea or two:

I just use two pieces – a right and a left side.

From https://backpackinglight.com/supplex_pants/

This was for supplex pants, you’d have to make it 1 inch wider on both sides for apex

Then you only need two pieces, not 4. Maybe you could take apart an old pair of pants and make a pattern from that. Or measure a pair of pants that fit.

If you wanted a stylish, fitted pair of pants then you probably need 4 pieces.

Another idea is to cut all your fabric big. Mark where you want the finished edge to be on the inside piece of fabric. Use pins or hand stitches through inside fabric, apex, outside fabric. At corners and a few other pieces. Then sew a row of stiches a bit inside that finished edge line.

If you want finished edge like at top and bottom (or the edge of a quilt) then cut along the line through the inner fabric and the apex. Cut the outer fabric 1.5 inch bigger. Then fold the outer fabric over twice, over the apex and inner fabric, and sew a row of stitches (a hem).

If you want to sew pieces together, like the right side to the left side, then you can just cut off inner, apex, outer along the line.

from https://backpackinglight.com/myog-synthetic-fill-vest/