I’ll be honest – this style of trousers/pants are not really my thing and I had kind of disregarded the Luna pants pattern when it came out. That was until I made the Beatrix top, also by Made by Rae and very much enjoyed it; and then saw this pair, which made me pause a little. There’s also no denying that these kinds of trousers are very practical, particularly when you’re running around after small children. I saw Rae was doing a sewalong, so I thought, well, why not? I did skip ahead of the sewalong since after I got to the sewing part I just decided to finish up. I’m sure that’s pretty normal.

Anyway, first thing I did was make a size 14 muslin. That was very straightforward, although, being a homework-at-the-last-minute kind of girl, I have to force myself sometimes. The muslin fit rather well, but the legs were too baggy for me due to some excess length, so I took a whole 2.5 inches off, which seemed to work better and I was actually pretty happy with the muslin version. I’m going to skip ahead here and say that the version in the fashion fabric wasn’t quite as good, however. That’s the second or third time that’s happened to me (the muslin fit was better than the finished article) and I think it’s due to the fact that I actually like the stiffer muslin effect and that, unfortunately, the give in the more forgiving final fabric is, in the end, not what I’m after. I’ll have to find a closer fabric match in the future.

The sew is straightforward and the instructions are good. It’s a pdf pattern and, as with the Beatrix pattern, I like the extra markings Rae puts on her patterns to help you line them up. Putting together pdfs is kind of dull, so any help to make the process faster is most appreciated! There are also some nice extra videos on her blog, including one which shows you exactly where and how to add and subtract length. I used this and it was very helpful. In the end, I think I would probably add an inch back with this kind of fabric since it rises up a little at the back now when I walk, which is probably an indication I took off a little too much.

The fabric I bought from JoAnn and I can’t for the life of me find it to link to. It’s not my normal type of fabric pattern either, but I thought it might be quite good for these kind of trousers. I noticed that a few bloggers had made up a version of McCalls M7242 maxi dress recently and the fabric featured is exactly the same (except it looks better on the pattern envelope). It is a drapey, tribal print crepe which cut and sewed well.

The trousers are sewn up in a straightforward way, with pockets attached to each leg piece and then all captured in the side seams. The waistband and ankles are finished with 1-in elastic, fed through fabric channels. Nothing too unusual, although I did end up with a bit of weird buckling around the hip/pocket area that you can see in the pic below. I may have caught one of the seams slightly, so will go back and check it out.

Bit of buckling at the hip

I finished the seams using the zigzag stitch with the overlocker foot, since this was a fabric that liked to fray, and it worked beautifully again. You can see it in the picture below although it’s not the best picture in the world!Overall, this was a quick sew – probably a day including the muslin. Sewing the actual fashion fabric trousers, maybe 3hrs of that for me. The instructions are fantastic and they are a good basic loose trouser. Truthfully, they’re not totally my thing, but that’s just a personal preference and this was definitely one of those “I wonder if self-made will suit  me better than RTW?” moments. The answer is, probably not. There are lots of AMAZING versions you can check out on Rae’s blog and elsewhere though – so take a look if you’re intrigued. Bye for now chaps!