Panting for a Change

Regular readers know that I have a lot of fun making shirts. I've been using the same Burda shirt pattern since the early 1990s (it's been out of print for years) and finally copied it onto non-woven pattern tracing fabric last year to preserve it. There's no record of how many shirts I've sewn from this pattern, but it's a pretty high number, and I have a lot of shirting fabric in my stash, waiting for attention.

My stash also contains quite a bit of suiting and pant fabrics. Making suits and pants is more involved than making shirts, due to the tailoring techniques involved, including welt pockets in the back. I have a pair of dress pants that has been in progress for many months, and is now likely heading to the UFO pile (UnFinished Objects). The holdup? Welt pockets on the back. They're not difficult to make, but can be time-consuming because I don't make them very often, and there is a necessity to be precise. In short, they slow me down! I rarely make pants anymore, because I just don't have the patience to overcome the welt pocket speedbump.

Ultra Violet

Recently I was looking through my pattern library at all the pants patterns, trying to get motivated. In late 2017 when the Pantone Color Institute announced their 2018 Color of the Year (Ultra Violet), I ordered a piece of purple brushed cotton twill fabric from fabric.com to make a pair of pants. I had already sewn up a purple-themed shirt (above) using multiple cotton prints, but the purple twill for the co-ordinating pants just languished in the stash pile...until last month.

Epiphany!

A few weeks ago I accepted an opportunity to participate in the entertainment for a Shrove Tuesday pancake supper event at church (above), which made me think about wearing the purple color that's associated with Mardi Gras. It would be the motivation I needed to sew up that piece of brushed purple twill to wear with the purple-themed shirt! But then the thought of having to deal with the welt pockets issue continued to hold me back. Then it occurred to me: why do I need to make welt pockets? I work in a casual office environment where I don't NEED to wear tailored dress pants. So what would happen if I just put patch pockets on my pants instead? (Answer: I might just get some of this pants fabric backlog sewn up!)

Suddenly I was motivated, and I whipped up the purple pants in no time (shown above, on a quilt my grandmother made), using a Burda skinny jeans pattern with patch pockets on the back. And skinny they are. I wasn't sure I could actually wear them (they're only 10" around at the leg hem), but they worked out just fine. That said, I will widen the legs slightly next time for both form and function. (It amuses me greatly that a pre-geezer like me used a pattern branded "young.")

It's great to have removed a long-standing obstacle to pants-making. By thinking about practical end-use, I was able to find a work-around which will let me have some fun and start working through my pants-fabric stash. A couple of other brushed cotton pants fabric options have made it into the sewing queue.

Until next time, keep those sewing machines humming, and don't be afraid to find your own way around whatever obstacles are holding you back!

danthefabricman@yahoo.com

@danthefabricman