Waffle patterns Azuki work pants

 Waffle patterns!  A company that makes gorgeous patterns, with unusual details, and fantastic instructions.  Every time I've made something from Waffle, it's been epic.  So why have I not made them all?  I suppose they do seem complicated, and that can sometimes be daunting.  These pants definitely seemed daunting!  So many pockets! The fly!  And then I realised I could use these two separate 1m pieces of fabric and I became totally keen to overcome all and make them right now.  I allocated a weekend.  

 Chose size 38 because in non stretch fabrics I didn't want them too tight, I could maybe have done a 36 if I were using a lighter weight or a stretchy fabric.

The blue is a "duck egg" canvas from Miss Maude and the brown is Japanese denim, also from Miss Maude.  The denim, in my defense, was for shorts.  But I have no excuse for why I bought a single meter of the canvas, as I was probably hoping to make Persephone pants with it and they need 2 m. I really liked the colours together but I also wanted to be careful not to turn these into clown pants.  I thought long and hard about how many pockets to use, and how to use the pockets to blend the colours.  The side tool pockets were tempting - and I definitely had enough fabric, but I was also a bit impatient and didn't want to faff around with too many little details, so I didn't do them.  The front leg pocket is supposed to have a flap, but I thought that was dumb.  Instead, I lengthened the pocket about 2" towards the inner leg, and added a zip to it with the sort of zip welting technique.  There was a bit of mucking around to get it to work (Note: always make the zipper-hole smaller than you think you need!) but it's fully functional.

It was a full 2 days of work, with the cutting being a previous day, so 3 including pattern piece management.  Incidentally, I finally figured out a dilemma that had plagued me this week: why my patterns were wonky.  The print shop had printed single pages wrong.  I figured it out because the pocket page was wrong and I had it to compare to the other pages.  I've since dropped by the print shop who are so understanding and we are going to come up with solutions to make it not happen again - but on my side it was a serious fail of taking responsibility and measuring the square box *every time!!*

I was sick on the weekend I made these but I managed to slowly make my way through, aided by how awesome Yuki's patterns are.  Everything is clear. The fly instructions were, somehow, as always, different from -all the other fly instructions ever- (why are there infinite ways of making a fly?) but they produced a perfect result.  I didn't switch to my new-old Bernina until after the sewing machine had birdnested up the waistband, but anyway the Bernina gave me easy hems and a buttonhole, which my sickly Pfaff can't manage.  

And to my shock they fit!  Pretty well! 

I took these with me on a trip away and convinced a friend who is good at photography to do a bit of a photo shoot around his house.  He has lots of jungly nooks and was entertained enough to get creative. 

After wearing these pants around for a day, although the waist is a tad too high, they scrunched down nicely and the fabric has started to stretch a bit.  I don't think I can call these high sophistication, but they are down my usual alley as sort of intrepid urban and the color scheme matches most of what I own (except for the pinks.)  This has also led me to look harder at Waffle patterns and I think I might attempt another pair of her pants now that these were such a good success. 

Ilima or Hallon, by Paradise Patterns, a review

Basically this low gathered back is what I was talking about here. (However in my dream vision there would be more tiers of gathered ruffles...)

With a great sigh of the inevitable, I put aside all thoughts of making jackets the week this came out. I bought the pattern the day I found it and picked it up from the printer the next day.  My muslin is size 4, B cup, and shortened 1" through the upper bodice lines (to ensure the back won't be too low.)  I made one stupid mistake in cutting my armhole bindings shorter, but in fact they aren't involved in the bodice shortening, obviously, and I had to recut.  I cut the dress as long as my fabric let me, and with no plan to add the bottom ruffle. 

I'm not entirely convinced by the angled bias bindings - on one side it meant that the edge wasn't fully covered, but when I put the armhole bias over it, things were fine.  It also doesn't match the pictures in the instructions, and the lengths are not consistent with the length you need- I ended up with a lot of excess to cut off.  The fabric is a lightweight silk cotton. The front neck feels too high - but that might be fixed with the bodice being longer.  The darts are about an inch too high. The drape of the front is very straight compared to all that gathering in the back.  

Verdict: don't need that shortening. Got busy with life and didn't carry on with the wearable version for a few months, at which point summer was so long gone.  Ugg season.  Oops.

Made a version according to the pattern in rayon/linen blend.  Maybe I should have started by following the pattern without any changes?  This pattern takes quite a lot of fabric, more than you might think because the back is really wide, so this pink was also the only thing I could find that I had enough of and was willing to experiment with - I had some other tempting fabrics but not enough of them.  I kept the 1" shortening near the hem but went back to the basic pattern otherwise.  I still disliked how the bias lengths are not the right length for size, they are just standard lengths, so you end up trimming a lot off the ends.  

I took a bunch of pictures on my phone without a bra, though I guess the bra is useful as a marker of how much lower the dress hangs without that adjustment.  Obviously the back looks better without. The front, not so much.

My friends all seem to think I should keep this dress for myself but it's the middle of the winter and freezing so I suspect it will wing its way over to Arizona.  I'm not actually super keen on the fit as is. My friend Regina has a higher tolerance for ruffles than I do.  Plan is to: 

shorten 6".  It's just too dramatic

add pockets, duh

Wedge a bit out of the side back above the gathering, to bring it up enough not to show my waist but without modifying the fit of the front and arms.  Though it's nice the pattern included a way to shorten through the back, in the end you need to be really short for that to work, because it changes the front quite a bit.

I have some lovely textured grey rayon that will wait until October or so when wearing backless dresses again makes some sense.  Overall this pattern is ok.  It's not a super high quality pattern.  You follow the instructions and you will muddle through and get a pretty good result, but to take it to the next level you need to think a bit for yourself.  (Pockets!)