The second week of April, I started a new job at a local Bernina dealer and promptly realized that I needed more pants. Like, right.this.minute. So my first purchase with my shiny new employee discount was two pieces of fabric: solid red and solid emerald green.
I sewed up the red right away.
It was a quick project. I already had the pattern – elastic waist, no side seams, and I hemmed them two inches shorter than the black pants so they’d be easy to wear with low-heeled or flat shoes. I also added shape to the hem with three skinny darts.
(I like the legs on my pants wide and keep them straight when they cover the heel, but there’s just something unpleasant-looking about straight wide hems that end even an inch or two higher. Much better when the hem curves in slightly.)
The fabric is Riley Blake Confetti in Cherry Tart. It’s a line of solids similar to Kona, and possibly meant to replace Kona since Robert Kauffman was taken over by the family that owns Missouri Star.
The pants are very comfortable to wear.
I’ve had a few people tell me there’s no way they could ever wear pants made from quilting fabric, which I think is a weird statement. I mean, can you wear scrubs or pajamas? Then you can certainly wear pants in quilting cotton.
It’s a medium-weight woven, all cotton, without any plastic or elastic “fibers” mixed in. A joy to sew and press, easy care, and long-lasting. What’s not to like?
For the emerald green pair, I wanted the leg slightly shorter. The weather was very summer-like the week that I made them, and I was ready for a more cropped look. Using the same pattern as for the red ones, I took off another two inches off the length and added the three skinny darts to bring them hem in closer to the leg.
The elastic in these is a little looser. Not sure what happened when I measured. Maybe I was having a fat day.
At any rate, every time I put them on, I have a sense that they might fall off (they never do) and that I should adjust the elastic. Of course, that feeling comes right as I’m getting dressed for work so no time to fix it, and by the time I get home in the evening, it’s not even on my radar so I keep forgetting 😄
The fabric in these is from Hoffman, and the color is called Clover. I really like this hue and have since bought the rest of the bolt. I’m thinking another pair of pants, a sleeveless blouse with a collar, and maybe a shirt dress.
For the record, the red pants took 3 yds of fabric and the green pair only 2.75 yds, which puts me at 33.75 yds sewn YTD.
And that’s all I have today. Stay tuned for part 3 of this catch-up series.
Happy sewing!
