Round 2 New Look pants

Hi again, it's me on my pants kick once again.  I just can't seem to help myself, but I am enjoying the fun choices I have in my closet now for pants.  First I want to talk about the fabric for this.

I once again let myself fall for cheap-o fabric simply because I loved the color!  What a disappointment it was to work with.  I purchased it at Joann.  Luckily it was 1/2 price so I didn't pay an arm and a leg for it but I do have to say that numerous times I almost took it outside and sacrificed it to the fabric gods of cheap (but pretty colored) performers.  Ugh.  I am just about to put a ban on Joann's until I read from other sewers their quality has improved.  The cost of cheap is just too high--I'll explain my frustration in a bit.

Now, back to the pattern.  Don't let the envelope fool you.  Straight from the envelope these pants aren't even close to resembling the straight leg, slightly tight look the super thin model is wearing.

I started with a 16 based on my measurements and took off a total of 2 inches from the waist, hips, and legs--from the top to the bottom!  Luckily there are so few seams that this is super easy to do.

I did know they would be huge based on my first review but as I cut out my pretty pink denim, I realized it would require some special handling in that it seemed to not respond as well as they denim I used from Hancock.

I sewed in this sequence which makes sense to me!

Staystitch the waistlines front and back
Sew the inner leg seams together
Sew the creases in the pants front
Sew the crotch seam
Sew the outer leg seam
Sew the waistband side seam and attach to pants
Put in the zipper
Hem
Cuff!

This is very similar to the pattern directions.  What I changed this time design wise was to omit the v-shaped cut out on the front and leave off the belt loops.  I also cut the waistband width in half because I didn't want them as high waisted as the others.

Fit wise, I mentioned earlier how much I took these in and also I lowered the front waistband by 1/2 inch and raised the back waistband 1/2 inch.

What gave me so many fits was putting in the lapped zipper on this fabric.  I ended up finally getting it in acceptably and then ripped out the seam from the end of the zipper to the hemline and resewed that.  I tried the pants on and just about cried, I hated them so much!  But, I thought let's give these a chance and wash and dry them and hope the fabric will go back to the original shape and luckily it did!  Yahoo!  My pants are saved!  I am interested to see how they will perform after wearing an entire day.  I am a little worried they will give me the baggiest butt in the world!  I will have to wear them around the house all day before venturing out.

So I do like my finished pants.  I do hope the fabric behaves better than it did as I was stitching them up.  I do recommend the pattern if you are willing to put up with adjusting the fit.

Thanks for reading!!!
Sue