I’ve finally made those darlings of the summer, the Peppermint Wide Leg Pants! I was going to make them in the summer using a piece of turquoise linen, but chickened out and used that fabric for a TNT pattern instead. But I stilll wanted to make the pattern so needed another fabric. I have found these to be super comfy, and I’ve worn them loads since making. They even made it to be part of the Christmas Day outfit! Apologies for the creasing, photos only taken halfway through the day… Real life! 🙂
My choice was the green denim I bought from Higgs & Higgs at the sewing show in London in October. Daughter No1 had convinced me that I needed green jeans in my life, hence the fabric. I started by tracing the G & H sizes, based on my measurements. I needed the H for the waist and graded down to the G for hip down. I shortened the legs by 4cm in advance, knowing my height and that of the “ideal” 1.7m tall Amazon for whom the pattern is designed. I toiled the pants in a stiff, thick fabric rescued from the charity shop and realised I could size down! They were too baggy, too loose all over.
I then traced the F, using the waist of the G, and moving to the F by 7cm from the base of the waistband. I didn’t re-toile, but got ready to cut. Then I realised I might have made a bloop. The fabric has stretch! The pattern is designed for fabric with no stretch… But by this time I really wanted these pants in this fabric. So I decided to start with cutting the F-G, the waistband was interfaced on the cross grain so there was no stretch. The pocket bags are cut in cotton poplin, leftovers from the lining of Daughter No1’s pink trench coat. These helped to control the stretch across the front. I cut a small facing piece like you do for a pair of jeans, from the green denim.
What I should have done is cut a couple of patch pockets for the back. I find it more comfortable to pop my phone in the back pocket than in a front one. Now, on the subject of pockets… These are HUGE! I thought when was tracing them that I really should reshape them to a more usual shape and size. So when I do put my phone in there, it swims around. I imagine I’d lose many a bit of loose change in these pockets, so I will be stitching a better shape this time, and changing the shape completely for the future.
I decided to sew the side seams with a 1.5cm allowance, rather than the 1.2cm allowed, to compensate for the stretch. I checked them before adding the waistband and realised they were still to loose, I needed to get the negative ease levels up to make the pants look like the others made with no-stretch fabric. So I took another 1.5cm off the outer leg seam and 1cm form the inner seam. This seamed to work, so I sewed on the waistband and crossed my fingers. It worked! So I guess you could say I’ve technically made the E size?? I still had the F for the waistband, and the “E” came in by about 10cm below the waistband seam.
I have to admit I got confunded by the zip instructions. I decided to follow the instructions as written, but then got to a part when I realised it just wasn’t going to work. The instructions are backwards! Next time I’ll do the fly the normal way, and change the centre front seam to allow for additional width. If you want fabulous fly zip instructions for jeans, read the Birkin Flares by Baste & Gather. You cannot go wrong with those. Anyway, I ended up unpicking much of what I had already sewn and topstitched in order to finish off the fly, but thankfully it doesn’t look too bad.
I do like the shape, and the fit is rather good, despite my fiddling and the incorrect fabric! So all this will be completely out of the window when I make the pattern again in the right fabric. But for now, I’m happy – and even happier because the other half, who doesn’t really like cropped, wide leg pants on me, likes these! I think it’s because of the fit at the waist and hip, so it’s not all baggy.
I love the colour, love the length and the width of the hemline. These pants fit into my wardrobe so well, the colour give the blues, greys and blacks a little pop, just like those rust pants I made in November, and the rust corduroy Kana’s Standard pants I made in October!
These pants have hit a record for me. They are the 100th project I’ve made this year! Since I started tracking my projects, I’ve never got this far, so Im pretty chuffed, although I think some in the slow sewing movement wouldn’t be as impressed! So now I need a new challenge for next year – and it won’t be to see how many more than that I can make.
THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS 