Thanks, and yes, it is a curved waistband, so maybe straighten the end of that a little too?

I think I'd just continue it rather than straighten it. But if I was doing it I wouldn't cut the waistband until I was happy with the pants front/back.
Will you be giving anything to the back pieces? You don't want to throw off the outside seams?

I went to my 'local shop' - eBay - and was able to find a seller with both 80/12 and 90/14 EL X 705 CF needles so bought a couple of packs of both. I'll feel more confident now, with those on their way. I know they aren't the same but I broke the knife on my serger during the first day (yes, I knew better) and looking at it for the next 10ish days and not being able to use it was just awful!

So far the Britannica is going well, rethreading isn't a nightmare. It likes my assortment of serger threads just fine but when I had a go with metallic sewing threads I had to do some tension adjusting, as you'd expect. I think it's going to be both useful and fun.

My Britannia arrived nice and early today, a surprise as I wasn't expecting it until evening, the usual delivery time for us. Nicely wrapped and not a rattle to be heard (I shook it!)

I've had a few goes with it. It was all loaded up with 3 needles and looper threaded, so that's what I've used and it seems to work very nicely with the assortment of knit and woven fabrics I've tried. One of the tension dials was different to the others so already I've had a small play with the tensions and have seen the visible difference, nice. I'll try rethreading it later today.

I look forward to watching some coverstitch videos now as I've totally forgotten just why I thought I needed it. 

One of the questions I asked Six Penny Memories before ordering was if it needed special needles or would use any needle and the response was any needle. The manual states to use EL X 705 CF - I'm wondering a bit about this. I don't have much needle experience as my serger uses the same needles as my sewing machine. I hope I won't have much trouble getting those EL X 705 CF needles

oh wow @Acorn ... hearing a rattle must have given you the heebie jeebies! Thanks for the heads up

Thanks @Sewbusy it's good to know you've done a bit with it without any issues. Your car comparison makes perfect sense and I think - thanks to your original posting about it - I've made the right choice for me. I'm a Skoda kind of sewer 

Now I'm looking at my room and rearranging it all in my head, but I'll wait to do anything until after it gets here.

@Acorn     

@Acorn Yippee for you!! Hope you love it 

They are out of stock at the Franklins shop when I was looking last night or I would have bought there and then. There must have been something in the air!

I had to go searching for other availability. I've written to both the Britannia website and Six Penny Memories about it, asking about delivery. I'm in Ireland so generally take this step as P&P varies a lot, from free to crazy. Whoever has the better P&P rate (or answers first), I'm going to get it and the accessories.

Update: I've had a reply from Six Penny Memories and their accessories pack is discounted 50% .... they are calculating P&P for me, things are looking good