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.
