Twig and Tale Rainhaven pants in (very orange) Gore-tex

 I planned to make some new rain pants sometime last year.  In a fit of preparation I bought some outdoor fabrics from Ripstop by the Roll.  Sadly my colour scheme was bright green and bright orange.  Luckily the future ski bibs are dark sedate olive green.  Whew.  

This project was on the back burner because I needed it.  Yes, indeed, the minute I actually need to sew something I'm running away screaming, in this case with damp socks and a wet butt because my two pairs of gore-tex rain pants are so leaky.

 But OH past Sonia, why orange?

So I had just made a pair of pants, it had taken me days, it had been fun, but they were too big.  I had a few hours before bedtime.  I was *finally* back in the sewing Zone.  And so I thought nothing to lose, I'll just quickly whip up these gore-tex pants!  (I had the pattern as at some inspired point I had a few patterns printed.  Months ago.)  I needed something that would feel like a Success and of course, cross something off the list.  Cue the threatening music right here. 

I made size 38, no mods, I didn't use any pockets.  I used a teflon sewing foot and after a few attempts, I ended up using a jeans needle because nothing else would penetrate the fabric.  Sewing Gore-tex is one of those tragic life events that you try to block out with a strong alcoholic fog immediately afterwards.  I seam sealed every single seam with tape, also from Ripstop by the Roll, which was the very definition of overkill - dyneema seam tape.  Dyneema, for those who aren't rock climbers etc, has the tensile strength of steel.  The tape was a bit wide so some of my seams did get little wrinkles in them, hopefully not in a way that will let water in.  I then underlined the pants with that horrible green lining fabric.  This was kind of a bad idea - it's really soft and kind of sticky, so while it's comfortable, it's hard to get the pants on and off because they don't slide.  The exterior (orange, so very orange) is a super lightweight gore-tex type membrane.  I suspect it's not official gore-tex because of the rules in how things are named.  Once I had the two layers together they were easier to work with, so the waistband was kind of ok (the elastic got stuck in the layers but eventually pulled through).  For the hems, I made little velcro bands that I can shut the hem with, so the water will drip off my shoes and nothing will get caught on my bike.  

I had envisioned every step of this project long ago, so in a way, it was autopilot.  I knew what I wanted to do.  It did, however, take about 6 hours and I did the entire thing in one go without stopping.  I knew the minute I stepped away from this mess, I would hesitate to get back into it.  

I'm glad it's done!!  I have new, non-leaky rain pants!  And no one is going to run me over!