Weekend Project: Easy Street

Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.

-Coco Chanel

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon making my very first (but not my last!) pair of Easy Fit Pants, pattern by the Scientific Seamstress, and I don't know if these count as luxury, but they sure are comfortable! ;)

The first thing that jumps out at you when you open the Adobe Acrobat file is the thoroughness of Carla's instructions. There are about 40 pages of clearly written and beautifully illustrated step-by-step instructions that start with helping you figure out what size to make and stop just short of helping you put the pants on after you have finished making them. ;)

Now, I've been sewing long enough that one seam pants aren't exactly complicated for me, but there is one step that I always struggle with spatially - after stitching the crotch seam, realigning the legs to sew the inseams. It's dumb, but I always end up flipping them this way and that way several times before I can get them lined up. But with Carla's instructions, it was trivial. She seemed to know just exactly how to explain it so that it was obvious.

The pattern itself (taking up the next ~ 100 pages of the file!) was broken up into pieces (6 or 8, depending upon your size and 4 more for the optional cuff and ruffle), each of which prints out on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. (The pieces define the waist, crotch and hips - you use your desired length measurement to extend the pants leg full length to the ankle.) The pieces were clearly marked and easy to tape together. Also, all of the pattern pieces for each size (XS - 3X) were printed on separate pages, so there's no danger that a beginner would mix up size lines when tracing her pattern.

In fact, everything about this pattern is perfect for a beginner! If I am ever asked to help someone learn how to sew again, I'm definitely going to start with some of Carla's patterns.

So, enough talk, how about some pictures? Well, several years ago I made a pair of one-seam pajama bottoms using this Simplicity pattern (#9505), and I was interested to see how the 2 would compare.

In the following series of pictures, you can see the same view of each pair of pants - the pink are my new Scientific Seamstress pants and the blue are my older Simplicity pants.

Front:

Side:




Back:

As you can see, other than the wider leg of the Scientific Seamstress pants, they look pretty similar. Having the same rise in the front and the back worked just fine for these pants. And, yes, I like them that long! ;)

I'll be making more of these pants and more of Carla's patterns in the future! Right now, I'm going to go enjoy this pair on the sofa, with my husband, some popcorn and a movie! ;)

I hope you had a wonderful weekend with lots of sewing! :)