You Are Not Alone

  

 Booyah, pantalones.

Don't adjust your monitors, my friends.  These really are hot pink, pleated linen pants.  

Hot. Pink.

I bought this linen last summer.  It was described as "coral" when I ordered it online.   I was a little shocked when it came.  Not that I don't like hot pink, but it just wasn't what I expected.   I guess the color could be considered coral.  Maybe electric coral.  I decided it wouldn't be too huge of a loss if I failed at my third attempt at pants (fourth? fifth? I've lost count).

 

Now before you go all congratulatory on me, I want to you to know that I was not alone in the making of this hot pink wonder.  I had help.

Do you know StephC over at 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World?  Well, after my first rant on how difficult pants are, Stephanie sent me an email asking if I would be interested in testing her custom pants block service.  Yes, that's right.  She was asking me if I would help her test her service.  I asked if she had the 'who was helping whom' mixed up.  We all know I needed some major pants fitting help.

The service works like this: You send Stephanie your measurements.  She drafts you a custom pants block, basically a wide leg pair of bermuda shorts.  I'll spare you the muslin photos (or spare myself).  You email back and forth for a bit and fix some fit issues.  Then, you use your pants block to alter existing patterns.

These pants are from Simplicity 2477, which is out of print now.   I made view A.  I was super impressed with the pattern, which is not usually the case with some of the Simplicity patterns I've sewn before.  I thought it was drafted really well.  I decided on the pleated version which is so unlike me.  I don't think I own a pair of pleated pants, other than the wide leg ones I made a couple of summers ago.  That was a lucky make, by the way.  I was swayed by the illustration on the front cover.  In this linen, I imagined these to be long, fun and flowy- more of a palazzo silhouette.  I think they ended up long and fun, but more of a classic trouser silhouette.  The legs are pretty straight.  I left off the faux flap and added a couple of belt loops at the center back.  I also underlined every piece with some cotton broadcloth I had in my stash that just happened to be the exact same color.

Anyway, I used the pants block Stephanie so kindly drafted and fixed a few things before I made these up.  No muslin, my friends.  Just some careful prep.   If I was a good blogger I would have taken a picture of my pants block versus the pattern.  But I didn't.  So you'll have to take my word on the changes I made.   There wasn't a huge difference in the crotch curve.  The pattern was pretty close to my block.  But I did have a bit of an extension on the back crotch curve.  According to the block I needed to go up a size then make some major changes above the hip.   I changed the side and center back seam the most above the high hip line.   I totally changed the shape of the side seams.  And I took in the darts about 1/4" each.  I also angled the center back seam quite a bit.  Essentially I created another dart at the back, I just did it while I was sewing the seam.

It's not completely perfect, but it's close, right?  I see some wrinkles in the back view photo above.  Some of those are due to my shirt being tucked in.   The only issue that still bugs me a bit is some extra fabric at the center front seam.  I took in the back seam so much above the hip that I think I probably needed to angle the front seam in some.  Only there's a fly there.  Hmmm.  There will always be things to improve on.  But I'm not going to let that rain on my hot pink parade right now.

Originally I sewed cuffs at the bottom.  But I didn't like the length.  So I took the cuffs out and hemmed them loooooonnng.  I have to wear some pretty substantial heels.

 

One more bit of awesomeness about these pants- I used Debbie Cook's jeans fly tutorial. How freakin' amazing. If you haven't tried her method yet, do it. You'll be astounded at how fabulous your fly turns out. I pestered J about a zillion times to check out my fly after I sewed it up. He didn't understand, but I know you will. I'm not even embarrassed about my fiddly stitching above. Or my mismatched zipper.

 

There it is!  I feel like I can at least credit myself with one win against pants making now.  I can see these in the heat of summer with a blouse-y tank top.  I'll have to make one of those.  I think I may even try wearing them more beach bum style with flip flops.  I can roll up the hem.  They are linen after all.  I'll have to embrace the wrinkle.

Woot woot!

Hope everyone has a great week.