Ann Tilley Magic Pants, in a Holiday-appropriate Plaid Wool

"What, no funny title?" exactly none of you are wondering. "It's not a phrase that makes no sense to anyone who isn't the person authoring the post? She's actually directly indicating the content of the post upfront, as titles are intended to do?" It's true. I've decided to adopt a less silly and far more comprehensible approach to writing posts for the sake of visibility and SEO. I take no pleasure in it, but I found it necessary for this post in particular seeing as I couldn't find any reviews of this pattern. It's not yet in Pattern Review's database, no one has blogged about it, and if anyone's posted about it on Instagram it's impossible to find said posts because the platform has rendered hashtags entirely useless. So in my attempts to be helpful: if anyone's looking for reviews you have at least one (1) on this blog.

 

I don't normally buy patterns unless they've been reviewed and rated well by several, and certainly not at full price, but I was too intrigued by pants that both had the flexibility of an elastic waist and the appearance of being fitted through the waist. It has some design sensibilities similar to traditional hakama pants or Wildflower Design's Coquelicot Skirt, for example, for which the adaptability comes partly from the sides being left open. To draw another similarity, Coquelicot has a hidden interior waistband that is adjustable via lacing up like a corset; the Magic Pants have a stretchy rib knit panel that serves the same purpose.

 

The instructions say to go by your hip measurement which puts me at an Extra Small. The waist measurement for an XS ranges from 22-28 inches, which means my waist size is at the very upper limit. I needed to accommodate for potential weight gain rather than loss, so I cut an XS and graded to Small at the waist. (In actuality I cut an S for the entire thing when I was making a muslin, but I pinched out enough width in the legs and hips for it to be XS again). Unusually, I didn't have to shorten the hemline at all. The legs exactly touched the floor when they were still unhemmed, which means if you wear the same size and are taller than me at 5'3" you probably need to add some length.

I believe this pattern probably fits better out of the envelope among its upper size range than its lower. The lines for the inseam and front crotch are exactly the same for every single size. The height of the waist and the outseams are the only immediately noticeable variations. I guess the pattern is more accommodating to the larger sizes but still aims to include the smaller, because it can't work in reverse. In other words, it's easier to remove unneeded fabric if you're small than add fabric that you do need if you're big. The center back at the seat varies ever so slightly from size to size, so I did cut along the XS line there. Even that was too big for me. I ended up pinching out excess fabric at the center back, less so in the seat and more along my lower back. In short: if you are on the smaller side, expect to remove some excess volume.

Summary of notes and modifications:

• Size XS for hips and legs, graded to S at the waist
• Taken in at the center back

 

The instructions are thorough, unambiguous, and they truly hold your hand during the whole process. For example, they will directly tell you when to change your machine's standard foot to a zipper foot to make the next seams easier to sew. There are little annotations peppered throughout, making suggestions and reminders to check if your work is lined up correctly, or explanations of what the purpose of a certain step is. Some steps will reassure you when pieces may not match up perfectly and why it's fine if they don't. This pattern is labelled beginner-intermediate, and easy-to-parse steps such as these make the process more inviting. Even for myself, the wordy instructions are invaluable because no past experience making pants would help intuit how to construct the interior.

I can see how much thought went into the designing the knit panel and pocket situation. It's constructed in a way that conceals the raw edges that would otherwise sit snug against the wearer's skin, possibly irritating them. For pants that lack a waistband, I like that the pocket bags act as a facing that keeps a clean top edge. The twill tape to prevent the waist from stretching out is smart as well. I honestly can't say much else because the pants came together easily after the finishing the pockets. All notches matched up, the hem was even, everything went smoothly. I know that "no issues" sounds like a middling review but really I mean it as high praise.

This is irrelevant to the actual pattern and something that is a personal preference: I'd rather not use this rib knit again. Which is a shame, because I have a LOT of it for some reason I can't remember and I would like to use it up. It's great for sleeve cuffs and it's stretchy enough to get the Magic Pants over my hips, but I can already tell it's beginning to lose its recovery. For any future pants I have a tentative plan to take a nonstretch woven and run a few lines of elastic shirring through it. I think that could function well in the ribbing's place.

And now, the notable materials. The main fabric is a hunter green, plaid check wool from my local fabric store. I elected not to do an exact pattern match (I would have cried in frustration if I attempted it) but I thought I should at least make the legs symmetrical. I think I succeeded! I bought the D-rings from some dropshipping site after looking for them at three local stores and finding none that were big enough. For the belt strap, I followed one suggestion of the designer's, which is to use jean buttons in place of the usual sew-on snaps. I like using snaps as a closure, but I prefer not to if I know they're going to be under stress from constant pulling. The buttons I used are from WAWAK. The remaining supplies, meaning the quilting cotton for the pocket bags, elastic, and the twill tape, were all from the same LFS.

 

 

So! In short, I like this pattern and I recommend it. It's a deceptively easy to both understand and assemble and a fun learn-by-doing experience. I want more pairs of wide leg pants in my closet, and the Magic Pants are simple and versatile enough for me to want to make repeats. Which is rare for me! But I've got a lot of reasons to make them again: 1) I need pants 2) comfortable 3) stylish 4) I should get my money's worth instead of retiring a pattern after one use 5) sudden surplus of D rings I need to use up and 6) it was a really satisfying project, above everything else, and I'm looking forward to the next one.