Closet Core Plateau joggers review

 I realised that I need to be more proactive in making all the loungewear, rather than saying I have enough and then buying more when I see pretty ones in the shop.  The pocket structure on these made them interesting and I don't have any larger, cozier type sweatpants pattern, so I bought the hard copy pattern when I was in Miss Maude (in person!!).  This of course makes it a bit daunting, I ended up cutting a size 4, though I was able to leave the shorts uncut as I think my friend Tessa wants to try the pattern too.  On the size chart the size 4 says waist 26-hip 35, so now I wonder why I didn't make a size 6?  I'm waist 27-hip 37.  Maybe I was thinking about Ginger jeans?  Anyway, don't size down.  These fit, but I would have preferred the baggier fit of a size 6.  

My fabric is the Mind the Maker Cashmere Woolen Fleece knit.  It is amazing, I have it in 2 colours, it has been deep stashed.  I have matching rib for the cuffs, but used the sweatshirting itself for the waistband. 

I usually like the line drawings and instructions by Closet Core well enough.  However, it ends up that I really do not like these pockets. The instructions didn't make sense, things did not line up, and I ended up kind of making the pockets look right, and then retrofit-sewing stuff together to close up holes.  You need to do a lot of sewing with a normal machine for these pants, and considering you are using sweatshirt fabric, it's a bad match.  The sewing lines look bad, the pockets gape and look bad, and seriously wtf about that butt pocket hanging out mid thigh??  

yes!  That's where the pattern says to put this pocket.

 

I think I will ask Tessa for advice on a nice, normal, baggy and unflattering sweatpants pattern.  I don't recommend these particular pants at all because of the amount of normal machine sewing and the challenge of getting the pocket bits to match up. In the end, if you have pockets in sweatpants, there is going to be bulk because of the stuff you put in those pockets, or you can just put a binding on the front pocket edge and sew the pocket onto the front to cut down on bulk -- I don't feel like losing that layer of bulk here ended up creating a nicer looking front.

I will comment that the fabric is so comfortable that these feel ok on despite my gripes with the pattern and despite making what is likely a size too small. They would probably look a bit better if they were looser!

Petite Stitchery Adult Drew joggers review

I really didn't need more lounge pants, but I was so taken in by the slender fit of these and the cool lower leg gathers that I bought the pattern without much debate.  

I went with size small. 

The debate came about when it was time to choose fabric. How heavy? The instructions don't really give you much help.  I perused the tester photos for help.  I suspected in a sweatshirt fabric the gathers might be too thick, but I didn't really want my pants to be tshirt weight.  I had a perfect drapey midweight cupro knit, but for some reason it felt too special to use on this, since I don't know much about this pattern company.  Also, the gathered legs take a lot of fabric!  This is not your 1-meter loungewear special.  I finally compromised on a midweight jersey without much stretch - it was a remnant at Nick's Fabrics in Auckland and was 1.6m.

The instructions are a bit sparse and can be confusing as the different views are intermixed - but really you don't need too many instructions for these pants.  The pattern pieces come together fine.  I found it irritating that there's no top ribbing pocket piece - you have to make it yourself.  This is the kind of small thing that bothers me.  I noticed that it was hard to tell where to stop gathering on the lower leg.  I lined up my pieces and marked the spot, and I've adjusted my pattern pieces now so that I make a notch at that spot.  It would speed up the process a lot to do that in the beginning.  

In the end I like the pants.  I made my waistband too tight.  The cuffs are a bit tight.  This is due to my fabric not really stretching enough.  The fit was great but loungewear is not really very flattering so here are my scruffy hallway-loitering photographs:

The feature of the gathered lower legs does mean the grain goes a bit strange, but really I noticed that when pulling these on, and never again.  I think in stretchy fabric you can size down for a more legging-like look and that weird pull would be even less of an issue.

I think these pants deserve a second go in something cuddly and very stretchy.  I have lightweight sweatshirting with a bit of cashmere in it so I'm debating using that.  I'm happy with the size chart, and pretty happy with this pattern.  It has a lot of options - include a version sans gathers, and a version that rips all the way up the side like those Adidas trackies from the 90s.  (I wanted those so bad. In the 90s.)  However the set up reminds me of Patterns for Pirates and the cousin company Made for Mermaids - in that I would be hesitant to make anything complicated from them.  Simple things like this, fine, because you can really do anything with knits.  However now I'm contradicting myself because I'm in love with the Elliot romper pattern, so watch this space... 

Pattern Emporium Pleats to meet you pants

 My friend Tessa recommended these to me as I wanted to try out some new lounge pants. It took me ages to find the right fabric as in my mind it needed to be very drapey, and the pleats/darts mean it does take up more than a scant meter of yardage.  

Finally found a winner - viscose from The Fabric Box in Auckland.  It's a metre of fabric but just barely wide enough.  Well.  I shortened the legs 1" at the thigh lines in order to have enough space to cut out the waistband.  I figured I'm short, I might as well shorten them.  I've never shortened at the thigh lines before, that I can think of, but knees are always in the wrong place on RTW so it seemed sensible enough.  

Tessa assured me to choose my size by the measurements, so I cut a size 10.  There is a lot of info about final measurements which I did not really pay attention to so it's hard for me to tell whether I could have been forewarned about just how much ease is present.

 

Thank god I did shorten them!  They are a fine length now, though I could shorten a bit more if I wanted.  They are very drapey and, well...VERY drapey.  My first instinct with this pattern was to use a drapey woven and I still think that might be better.  I don't think the fabric has to stretch anywhere at all.  It feels a bit precariously loose on as I don't like droopy crotches in pants I'm going to wear out, but I see it looks pretty great in the pictures.

I was very grumpy while I was making these, which means I had little patience for annoying quirks.  The most annoying of those quirks was: not sewing down the pleats at all, you just sew across the top.  Really everyone: sew down your pleats 2-3 cm.  It will make your life easier and the pleats will look neater.  

The other most annoying feature of this pattern was the layout of the instructions.  Luckily other than a quick glance to check the direction of pleat folding, there's not much instruction needed.  Which is good because the instructions are *IMPOSSIBLE* to read.  They are laid out 2 pages across on a pdf, so you have to enlarge to 200%, scan across, at which point the page gets lost.  I really cannot state how important it is for instructions to be written on single pages in a vertical, not landscape orientation.  Maybe other people use tablets or something to read their instructions??  I would hesitate to buy a pattern from this company that required closely following instructions because my memory of being annoyed is pretty strong.  

Despite that, and despite the careful work needed to maintain 1/4" SA (which I kind of disagree with because I think it takes away an element of safety that a SA of 3/8" provides) - these are lovely pants which exactly match the pictures.  The pockets are just barely deep enough, the pleats create nice shape, the back darts are fantastic.  It took maybe 2 hours to make these.  I'm glad I waited for just the right fabric. 

Style Arc Shaza jersey pants review

Holy Crud what is going on here!? 

 

Well I started out thinking it would be neat to try an actual harem style dropped waist pant, instead of the hacked Anima pants I made last year (here - and actually one of my top 5 makes of 2020). 

I went with size 8.

The pattern is very simple, only two pieces and a waistband.  You have to cut them out flat instead of with the fabric folded, which on my oddly sticky rayon-linen knit was kind of a pain (or maybe it was the heat, ugh, so hot right now.) But backing up - the pdf was easy to put together, and I think I chose the correct size. To the best of my recollection, size 8 in StyleArc consistently is the correct one for me, although I'm not sure I've ever had great success with the patterns because of fit problems. 

The fabric is from Backstreet Bargains, and as I bought it to specifically make these, I actually did buy enough yardage. (I'm allergic to buying over 1.5 meters of anything, arg!!) It was cheap, and linen, yay!

The instructions are sparse (they always are with Style Arc). I didn't realise the pleats should be done with the wrong side up, so my pleats might be reversed, oh well.  And I think the waistband instructions are ridiculous - the technique listed is to fold the waistband, insert the elastic into it, baste it shut...and THEN sew the crimped up thing onto your massive pleated waist.  No thanks.  I sewed the waistband on sans elastic, leaving a gap in the back, inserted my elastic in standard fashion, and then sewed it shut. 

Also of note, the SA is 1/4" so my notches were too deep. They left holes along the waist that I had to fix later. 

 

Though these are not terribly unflattering, I have two major problems here. 

The pockets are created by sewing a line from the top down between the pocket part of the pants and the waist part of the pants, and voila, a pocket flaps forward, which you then sew towards the front. There is no such line at the bottom of the pocket, which means that it's just another pleat among pleats until you go looking for it.  Once you find it, the pocket seems very shallow because nothing is forcing it to stay fully flapped right side out against your thigh. My sticky fabric might be making this worse, though it is linen, and does drape nicely.

The other issue is of course everything happening below the knee.  Really I'd call these pants a success if they didn't narrow so much, but this is ridiculous - about the knee, they suddenly become leggings.  Like, absolutely leggings.  Way too long, too.  It's a fabric hungry pattern and I could have saved a lot of fabric by cutting off the bottom 4", which are all hunched together down there.  But better yet, I'll probably cut them off below the knee because I think the legging bit is horrible.  

Saved! But not for repeating as is. Beware the calf tightness, and widen appropriately. Pockets: hm.  Maybe better when objects are in them.

Frankenpants: Papercut Anima & The Great Jersey crop

Y'all...usually when I want something I just buy it.  I don't have the patience to try to draft things and I don't have the faith that I'll like my result.

These pants are an exception.  Here's a link to see them live.  I came really close to buying them...and then I thought seriously, this is So Simple.  There are tutorials online for drafting harem pants.  It also requires basically no skill, doesn't matter if it's not perfect, and I have many colours of jersey sitting around waiting to be used. Maybe not buttery smooth The Great jersey, but you know, whatever. I can always buy them later. Plus I'm not even going to wear them outside the house!  (That's a total lie, since this is New Zealand where anything goes.)

Not to mention that the website has all the measurements on it.
In case you care: rise is 16 5/8", leg opening is 8 3/4" and the inseam is 20 1/4" on the size 1 which is probably a size bigger than I would choose. I have a pair of Anima pants that I made awhile ago to give me an idea of what I'm starting with. The pockets are harvested from the Metamorphic dress pattern, because it was close at hand.

It has to go well, right?
Here's the post that inspired me, though there are others.

I wasn't sure how much to keep the initial crotch curve, versus creating the U shape of a lot of harem pants (these included.) I erred more on the side of keeping my original pattern.  The result looks a bit less like the Jersey Crops. Also, I think the measurement for the ankle opening is a diameter. I widened the ankles on mine and then stopped when I saw that the width of the back piece was already about 6 inches, which means my final result was 12" and the pattern should have been 17".  It's obvious that mine are tighter at the ankles.  The drop is less obvious.  And the fabric is linen, which doesn't have quite the body of the Jersey Crops. 

I can't say they are the Least Bit flattering, but they are magical in 2 ways:
1. I no longer feel like I need to buy the Jersey Crops - it's clear to me they would also not be that flattering, so why waste the money?
2. They are really comfortable and I can even do yoga in them!

I realised at some point they were going to be a bit see through, which they are, if you are looking closely, which you're NOT, right?

Anyway here's for one isolation success (in which I totally rock the delicious combo of bright purple pants and a bright pink cashmere sweater, a recent epic $15 secondhand shop score.)