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First Wearable Chloe Pants!

As previously mentioned, I have been working on successive muslins of the Tessuti Chloe Pants.  The first muslin was a straight make of the pattern, with some adjustments for sizing only.  It was made in homespun and blogged here.  For the second muslin, I moved the zipper to centre front and added a waistband with a tab closure.  I also adjusted for my somewhat flat posterior, and considered adding in seam pockets but didn't.  It was made of black homespun and blogged here.

I finally felt ready to make a "real" version - and this is the result.



I am a bit annoyed with myself in my fabric choice for this.  I found a remnant of dark denim which was a serendipitous match as I think it came from the remnant table at Tessuti.  I didn't really think about until I started cutting, but there is actually some stretch in this fabric, which wasn't really what I wanted for this make, it meant I wasn't really comparing apples with apples in terms of fit.

Having realised that, I plowed ahead bravely and decided to make a semi-skinny jean type version rather than the looser fitting Chloe Pant.  This means my first version of the Chloe is very un-Chloe...oh well!



As you can see, these are rather more skinny than the pattern.  I have also made them tighter across the waist and hip (unflatteringly so, in these pictures...) to allow for how much this fabric relaxes during wear.



For this version, I focused on thinking about the details and what I might want to change for successive makes.  I used the turn under and stitch method of finishing the crotch seam - this makes for a smooth and non-bulky seam finish.


I added my tabbed waistband, as for muslin two.



Here you can possibly see how I made the tab parts before attaching the waistband, which allowed for a neater finish.  Here is the waistband added to the pants:


And this is how it looks when closed.  You can also see in these pictures one of the bits I loved most about these - the lapped zipper.  Jill from Patchworks (my sewing teacher mentor lady) showed me how to do this, though I have since found various tutorials on the internet.  It looks so neat and professional, and with the waistband addition I love these pants.

Here is the waist band sitting closed.  I realised after I was finished adding the waistband, I had fallen into a trap for young players.  If I had made the long tab of the waistband on the other side (or the lapped zipper in reverse) then the tab of the waist band would work with the lap of the zip, rather than against it as it does here.  This isn't super critical, but the front of the pants would sit better with it the other way.


So all up, these are now my go to pants pattern.  I think this pattern will make my lovely linen pants for summer (my original intention), good jeans-type pants like these, some nice work pants and probably also a shorts pattern for next summer.  I am aware they don't really resemble the original pattern so much (except for muslin one) but I definitely like a waistband on trousers and I think the fit of these is better for me.  Next time, I will definitely add pockets too!

Not bad for a ten dollar download :)

Comments

  1. I am so super impressed you can make pants - they are way out of my comfort zone. And that zipper puts my previous efforts to such shame - wish I could pop over for a zip masterclass.

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