Ann Tilley Magic Pants + Peppermint Wide Leg Pants: The Sequels

Hey, guess who got over her fatigue immediately after expressing she was tired of making pants? This gal! And I didn't even choose an exciting new pattern, nope, it's the Peppermint Pants and Magic Pants again. Now with a minimal but nonzero number of adjustments, which I felt were useful to list and elaborate upon. And so I will.

 

I cut and fit the Magic Pants almost the same as the first pair. First minor change: patch pockets on the rear. Second: I inserted a spare strip of elastic between the two layers of the rib knit panel. I previously said I had a tentative plan to use elastic shirring and I ended up too lazy to buy extra material. In ensuring the rib knit maintains recovery, this solution works well enough.

Third: I removed even more excess volume at the center back seam. This 10 ounce cotton twill is not rigid by itself but it is more stiff in comparison to the wool flannel. That stiffness made excess wrinkles and drag lines more apparent. For the first pair, a combination of drape and print disguised those fit issues. To emphasize a commonly repeated point about making a muslin: it should be in a material close to your final version so you don't get these fit discrepancies. Luckily this adjustment is as simple as taking in a single seam, it's no sweat at all.

 

The stiffness also reveals that I could have taken in the inner thighs and back legs too because there's some excess pooling there. But that's a lot less noticeable to the average person so I left it alone. It's not worth it to drive myself insane with perfectionism when "good enough" is, well, good enough.

There was a real moment of panic when I realized my cut of fabric was about an inch too narrow to cut all my pieces, no matter how differently I placed the pattern. Truly, it was just the back leg pieces barely overlapping at the crotch hook, but there was no possible placement that would make them not do that. To make more room for the back legs, I cut part of the pattern piece off knowing I would sew it back on, potentially in different scrap fabric if I needed to. This approach worked; I was able to cut the back legs without any overlap because of the minimal extra area afforded.

See, normally you're supposed cut it all in one piece and simply fold the facing over to the inside of the pants. You aren't going to see it from the outside so using a different fabric will work in a pinch. I ended up not having to do that, I just cut the facing pieces from the remnants of the main fabric. But now you know that you can do this if you just barely run out of fabric like I did. I almost screamed in frustration when I first thought I would have to buy a whole extra pant leg's worth and be left with a ton of waste at the end.

One tiny change almost not worth mentioning is that I overlocked the raw edges of the pocket bag before sewing them together. The instructions tell you to do the opposite because then you'll be securing the edges in one single pass, which makes sense for efficiency's sake. My way is slightly more work but I find it easier to work with small individual pieces if I can help it.

I really love this rich, burnt orange shade that's only a little muted. I've been aiming to add more orange to my wardrobe because, despite its unwarranted reputation for looking bad on most people (lies!) I enjoy looking at it and don't care if it is actually unflattering. In my monkey brain that is easily amused by bright, distracting colors, orange shades scratch the same itch as a striking red would but they don't bleed in the wash so goddamned much. And never threatening to dye-contaminate the rest of the load is a huge, huge bonus.

Summary:

• Size XS through legs and hips, graded to size S at waist
  
• Removed volume from center back seam
• Added butt patch pockets
• Inserted elastic inside the rib knit panel
  
• Cut back facing separately from the back leg
• Overlocked the edges of the pocket bags before sewing them together
  

 

And now, in the same cotton twill in a different colorway: my second pair of Peppermint Pants, in a lighter, dustier blue. The adjustment I made on this pair was a hair more involved than merely taking one seam in. I expanded the area near the front crotch seam for some extra room. I didn't know what was doing, exactly.

I clocked that the first pair was snug around my belly but I dismissed it as not a problem. I thought, well this is what my body looks like and the pants are showing what it looks like because they fit so well. Nothing needs to be fixed when this is my objective shape. And then I sat down in the pants for a while and learned, yeah, well-fitting pants aren't supposed to hurt the squishy part of my lower abdomen by the end of the day.

I had a starting point of what I wanted to achieve, and that was a flatter front that "hung" from my stomach instead of clinging closely. That's how my RTW pants behave. People normally suggest a full tummy adjustment but that adds volume vertically, and that is the not the direction I need it to go. I figured if I wanted to add volume horizontally, I could flip the FTA 90 degrees and I'd maintain the crotch length. I'm sure there's a name for this alteration but I don't know what it is, so I'll demonstrate what I did:

• First, I took my front leg pattern piece and drew a line straight down, following the straightest portion of the crotch seam. Mine is 0.5" away from the edge.

• I put on my first Peppermint pants and marked about where I wanted the fabric to begin "hanging" from my belly. That is point A. 
• Point B is where I wanted to add the most volume. There, I placed a ruler perpendicular to the curve of my stomach and determined that I wanted the fabric to stand 1" away from my body. 
• Point C is arbitrary and you can place it anywhere along the vertical line.
• From A to C cut along the vertical line. Then, from all three points cut to but not through the edge of the crotch seam, leaving a little hinge. I made C's slash line end at the apex of the crotch hook.

 

• As recorded before, wanted a total 1" extra volume at point B. So I spread the space by half of that, 0.5" (exaggerated in the photo for visual emphasis)
  

 

 

• I taped the changes down, smoothed out any of the hard angles along the edge, and then cut the final version
• Done! Now how did turn out?
  

The difference is subtle. The front is certainly flatter, but not completely flat. And that's okay because we're all about improvement and practicality over pure perfection here. I could have made point B's shift even larger, giving me more than just one inch, but small changes are all I can handle right now and I don't want to mess with the pattern again. The other change I said I was going to do, and did, was lengthen the fly extension 3/8" so I had extra room to fit the pants over my hips. The pants are comfortable, they go on easily, they're good, I'm good, everything's good.

I actually wanted to do more with these pants; I pinned in the side seams and inseams of my first pair to see if I could alter the legs to taper at the ankles and it turns out, nope, I cannot! All it did was create a bunch of folds and drag lines along the back leg that I couldn't remove with any amount of strategic pinning. It's a shame because I've seen others do the same alteration with this specific pattern successfully, but I guess without some painstaking changes unworthy of my time and effort, it's incompatible with the shape of my legs. Too bad.

 

 

Summary:

• Size C, side seams taken in at hips
• Cut-on fly extension instead of sewn-on
• Lengthened fly extension 3/8"
• Added volume to the stomach horizontally with a slash/spread method

 

I am not exactly experiencing the pants fatigue again, but knowing I have added four pairs to my wardrobe in two months compels me to slow down. At least for now. I have less of a choice this time as I was using pants projects as excuses to use up all my quilting cotton and poplin scraps for pocket bags. Friends, with these two pairs I have finally run out. It's nice that if I can't cut myself off then I can trust that my own stash will do it for me. Thanks, stash, for keeping me accountable, and thanks new pants for using up the stash! And for curing my pantslessness.