In my ongoing Make Nine 2019 quest to use, and reuse, and reuse patterns some more, I decided to hack the Tilly and the Buttons Marigold pants that I used for my Marigold jumpsuit and my Anza/Marigold mashup. I used a brilliant tutorial by Catherine at Thread Snips to turn the Marigold pants into something like the Elizabeth Suzann Clyde pants.
I won’t include all the details here because I followed Catherine’s tutorial exactly. The only change I made was to add elastic to the hems. More on my reasons for that later).
Fabric for this make is the same silky linen and viscose from my Marigold Jumpsuit (from Blackbird Fabrics, where else). Sorry, I can’t remember the colour description. This fabric is absolutely lovely, which is why I chose to use it again. Please note, it doesn’t look at all shiny in person like it does in these photos. My favourite thing about the fabric, aside from how soft it is and it’s lovely drape, is that it doesn’t wrinkle like linen. I can sit in these pants and I don’t stand up with crazy lines radiating out of my crotch – a huge linen-pants-win in my opinion.
I’m wearing these pants my Closet Case Kalle shirt tied in a knot in these photos, both because I like the combo and because I used this spotty viscose poplin at the pocket lining in the pants (matching without anyone knowing – because why not?)
My first try at these was a bit of a failure. Somehow, the pants ended up with four inches of extra ease throughout. I don’t know if it was my drafting or sewing but I put them on for the first time and laughed. They looked ridiculous. Unfortunately, I had properly flat felled all of the seams and sewn and serged the waist band. I had to sleep on it before I got up the motivation to seam rip every seam apart and have another go at it.
In the end, I’m glad I did. I took both side seam on both legs in by a half inch (one inch total reduction at each seam), tapering to a quarter inch at the ankle. The result was four inches removed at the waist and hip and two inches in the legs. The pain of stitch ripping was so worth it.
Two things I will change in my next version of these pants (and yes, I’ve already cut out my next pair):
- Remove 1″ from the rise – I’ve already removed a lot of the rise of the Marigold pants (and redrafted the crotch curve – see my Marigold jumpsuit post for more about that) but these need more somehow.
- Decrease the depth of the pockets by 5″ – I drafted these pockets to the length of my reach but it is a bit ridiculous. I don’t need pockets nearly that deep!
I will also probably not put elastic in the hems of my next pair. I did it in this pair because the second time I sewed the side seams, I cheated and did a faux flat fell… but I left white thread in my serger. This meant I saw white thread when I rolled up the cuffs and that was not the look I was going for. Elasticizing the hems gives these pants the look of joggers though and I am all here for it.
Stay tuned for hack #2 coming soon.
Thanks for stopping by!
~ Lindsay