Pants!: Part 1

Remember the struggle I had with the Lazo trousers for my formal outfit? I’m tackling the pattern again… sort of.

Unfortunately, I didn’t stay with my formal study long enough to learn how to make a pants block, and it was always going to be a two-person job. I haven’t had an opportunity to find any other way to learn that skill either. So, my new approach has involved using a pair of pants that fit me well, and deconstructing them to get the shaping right.

These are the pants, from a line sold by Target – I struggled to get a good photo, but you can sort of see them in the photos on my formalwear post. Deconstructing them was relatively easy, save for some difficult spots around the zipper and belt loops. Once I had one front leg and one back leg, I pressed each flat, and carefully traced their shape out onto pattern paper. From measurement, there was a 1cm seam allowance.

I then added 0.5cm to the front side seams just through the top, because I do find the pants to be a smidge tight in the front, and I adjusted the waistline contour a bit more by raising the center back 1cm, and dropping the center front 1cm, then re-tracing the curve. Using measurements taken while wearing the pants, I also marked in my full hip, knee, where my boots start, and ankle. This way, I can use the result as a base for other pants, and adjust them much more readily.

Tracing the back darts did prove very tricky, and I did need to very carefully remove the front slash pocket and its facings, to trace these off separately. The waistband is contoured, but since I’ve changed the curvature of the top of the pants, I needed to re-create the waistband. Really wanted to do it as a fold-over, but alas, that doesn’t work with contoured waistbands.

I’ll be toiling this directly in some calico, and then working out adjustments to style them along the lines of the Thread Theory Lazo pants, but not as high-waisted (I’m not a fan of high-waisted pants for many reasons) and with a couple of other minor adjustments.

I have three further variations planned:

• Removing the belt loops and adjusting the waistband for a cased drawstring, adding two bellows pockets to the thigh, adding a pleat across the front of the knee, shortening to 1.5cm below where my boots start and adding a cuff in cotton jersey to replicate what I wanted to do with the Vikisews James joggers pattern.
• Removing the belt loops and adjusting the waistband for a cased drawstring, removing the zipper and changing to a button fly, adding a little more ease for a relaxed fit, and straightening the leg from the knee down, to replicate the Thread Theory Eastwood sweatpants.
• Transposing the entire pattern sans waistband and pockets over to the Merchant & Mills Thelma jumpsuit pattern, so the pants part of that actually fits.