Sailor pants

Hi all! Have not been in the mood to sculpt lately so I have been working on the house and the long "honey do" list. However, I did sit down the other day and work on the sailor's pants so here is the step-by-step on them.

 I have chosen a pair of old silk shorts for the material for my sailor pants.

 I cut a chunk off the side of the shorts which is already seamed together. This will become my side seam on the pants so the wear patterns are already in the cloth.

**A little side note here. When I sculpted the mermaid's hand I slipped a thin wedge of powdered clay under the  fingers so there would be room to put material between the hand and his torso.

 This lets me insert the material without adding stress to the fingers.

The side of the shorts are cut to fit the front and back of the pants. The pants are slightly over-sized so they will be baggy on the figure. The leg seams, front seam, and back seams are stitched together before they go on the figure.

 I use a piece of the hem from the shorts bottom to make my waistband of the pants since it is already pressed and has wear on the edge.

Okay, strange photo! I want the pants to have the look of clothing underwater. When clothes get wet and the body is in motion, the clothing sticks to the body more than it would out of water. To get that look  I cover the skin with Fabri-tac then lay the cloth on the skin and form the wrinkles in the cloth as I work.

 The same technique is used as I position the pants on the legs. Here you can see the left pant leg is glued to the figure whereas the right has not been glued yet.

 The pants are "wrinkled" all over.

The bottom of the pant legs are glued in place. they will be covered by the bucket boots.

 I run a very badly stitched seam along the waistband (want it to look like very cheap stitching) and glue the band around the figure to cover the top of the pants fabric. The material is kept away from the rod for the mermaid and is glued tightly so it cannot get caught in the tube as they come together.

A drop flap is attached over the front seam of the pants. Buttons will be added later.
 Next time I will show the leather boot assembly.
Have a great day!
Mark