Trousers Tutorial, part 9 - Turn Facings Under

Using your zipper/piping foot, sew the center front edge of the front facing to the trousers front.

Diagonally clip away the seam allowances at the upper center front.

Turn the facing assembly under (wrong sides together) and press. 

Hand sew the centermost ⅜" bottom of the front facings to the center front seam allowance/zipper tape.

When closed, the zipper should extend to ½" from the top of the trousers.

Unzip the zipper and hand sew a hook-and-eye closure to the top of the trousers, above the top of the zipper.

Using gold thread (again, it's okay if it's not metallic - this is difficult enough as it is without having to worry about the fussy metallic thread), fasten the sides of the waistband facing to the trousers by sewing through all layers along the uppermost 2" or so of the ⅝" trim. 

TIP: We found it extremely helpful to pin the waistband facing assembly in place outside each side of the trim before actually sewing the two together.

(For the record, aesthetic reasons aside, this - and the hemming process - is why we prefer to work with the thinner division piping over the wider stuff; folding the ⅜" piping in on itself, in addition to the all the other layers involved, can result in a very unwieldy assembly to sew!)

The bottom edge of the back waistband facing should extend past the bottom of the waistband elastic by ⅜". Pin it into place. 

TIP: Distribute the gathered fabric as evenly as possible by vertically pinning the back waistband facing to the back trousers at the center back, then halfway between the center back and side seams, then halfway between each of those pins, etc. until the gathered excess is more manageable.

Using your zipper/piping foot, topstitch the back waistband facing to the back trousers ⅜" from the bottom of the facing (flush with the bottom edge of the elastic), fully stretching out the waistband and fabric as you go.

Once secured, the inside of the back trousers should look like this:

To permanently distribute the gathered excess fabric as evenly as possible, sew two additional rows of stitching through all layers - one about ¾" from the top of the trousers, and one about ¾" below that - fully stretching out the waistband and fabric as you go.

The finished back elastic waistband will look something like this:

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