The slippery slope...baggy pants!

Persistence pays off - I love my new baggy pants!

And the path was anything but straight and level. Pants are hard. I was thinking about it last week, sitting on the floor in the loft, culling my pattern stash. House cleaning. I was tossing pants patterns left and right. It seemed like every other pattern in my stash had some variation of loose leg or wide leg, pleated waist, drawstring waist, elastic waist...I had a bunch of these things.

The house cleaning moment was brought on by completing my muslin of the Style Arc Daisy Pants. They just didn't work. I put a lot of effort into them - redrafting, fitting, ripping, sewing - but I felt like I ended up with a butchered pattern that didn't really work magic for me.

And then I got to the Vogue section of my stash. There it was - Kathryn Brenne's pants, the ones with the upside-down pocket on the leg. Those pants fit me better than any I've ever sewn. I've done them 3 times and wear them constantly. How about just modifying the lower leg?

Vogue 9114

Easy, and I love them.

They fit me so well through the waist, bum, crotch, and hip that I could wear them with a cropped top. The waist is fairly narrow, actually an inch or so less than my hips. But I just do that little wiggle thing when I pull them on, and it's wonderful not to have a ton of gathered fabric around my middle. 

Front view,

Back,

And side. No pulling at the pockets.

Just a couple sewing notes:

• My fabric is Robert Kaufman yarn-dyed Essex linen, purchased from Craftsy. This is a fantastic linen/cotton blend, a perfect weight for pants at 5.3 oz. After prepping it with 3 passes through the washer and dryer, it has a lovely soft, pebbly-textured hand.

• I used cotton broadcloth for the pocket facing, to keep the weight down in the side and waist seams.

• A couple pics of the waistband detail:
  
  Inside and outside. The space on the inside center back is for insertion of the elastic. The seam allowances are basted down so that my elastic insertion gadget won't catch on them.

         Outside, with the elastic inserted and topped with triple-stitch zig-zag - no rolling allowed!

I'm making more of these for sure :-)

Tunic: Butterick 6024

Parting shot: I've been making glass seed bead necklaces, 32" - 34" long. I can't wear most jewelry findings, so I knot mine and use E6000 to secure the knots forever. Here they're hung over my work tray while the glue cures. These are fun. 

Ciao! Coco