In order to clear my sewing space and make way for the Partnership Celebration dress, I needed to finish up a far more mundane and practical sewing project: PANTS!
These are a slightly modified, more bare-bones version of the summertime pants I posted about back in June. I actually started them in July, in the midst of my pants-sewing fervor, but since they're made of an extremely heavy corduroy and we were having temperatures above the 110-degree mark at the time, something about the project just didn't seem that exciting.
Come the chilly winds of November, though, and another big project on which to start work, a cozy pair of cords seemed like just the thing. As you can see above, I left off the cute little buttoning tabs from the other pair; the corduroy was just so heavy that I felt like they would end up overly bulky. Plus, I have to admit, there was an element of "Brr it's cold - I need these pants TODAY" that motivated me to eschew unnecessary details.
Another change I made was to draft my own jeans-style patch pockets in place of the welt pockets called for in the pattern. The welt pockets are super-cute, but for a casual pair of pants I felt like the patch-pockets are sturdier and more practical, better for hooking one's thumbs into, holding one's wallet after a Saturday brunch, or sitting cross-legged while playing a boardgame.
This is my third time through with this pattern, and every time the product has markedly improved. These are the best yet, I think: we forgot to photograph it clearly, but all the different pieces of the fly/yoke construction fit together more closely, looking and feeling better both from the right side and the wrong side. I've worn these pants almost constantly since I finished them a month and half ago; they're super-comfy and I love the fit. I lined the pockets and yoke with this paisley print I had lying around, which goes with the whole 70s feel:
Yay, pants! Expect to see yet another avatar of this pattern sometime in the spring; I have a light-weight, baby-blue corduroy that's begging to become Springtime Pants. In the meantime, my fitting shell for the Partnership Celebration dress is almost done (finally), and I'm super-excited to cut into my fancy silk! A post on that shortly, but for now...pants.
