My Favourite Pants

 

Hello, hello! I'm here today to talk about my FAVOURITE pants.  Now, if you follow me on Instagram at all, this will be absolutely no surprise because they have shown up over and over again as part of my Me Made May outfits this year.  I wore them on the first day and I wore them today on the last day and I wore them multiple times in between.

I'm talking, of course, about the True Bias Lander Pants.  Several summers ago I made a pair of Lander Shorts to try out the pattern for the 2018 Outfit Along and see if they lived up to all the "Lander Pant Love" hype.  Reading back on that post I was surprised to see that I'd not been very happy with them at first.  I'd completely forgotten all my trials and tribulations in sewing them up. All I knew was that as far as I've been concerned over the time since making them, they most definitely were worthy of "Lander Pant Love" because I've worn those shorts every summer since - they are literally my favourite pair of shorts.  After wearing the shorts so much the first summer, it was always my intention to make a pair of cropped Landers.  It's the same old story of procrastination though and those cropped pants took me almost three years to actually sit down and make. I really think in the interest of not wearing the same pair of shorts or pants day in and day out this summer, I should really get going on making another pair of each.  

I did have to tweak the fit of the Lander Pants this time around again just a smidge.  I took a bit of a wedge out of the centre back at the waist, then I took in the side seams a bit more than last time, but my biggest change and it's a definite game changer in the fit, is that I went ahead and altered the waistband from a straight to a curved one.  I LOVE the fit of them now!  

I did have some adventures in cutting out my waistband.  Don't forget my pattern has been sitting around for three years now.  I guess glue stick glue doesn't last forever maybe? Long story short, part of my waistband pattern piece went missing (unbeknown to me) so I drafted my curved waist band according to what I thought was my original waistband.  Spoiler alert:  It did not fit.  Of course it did not fit!  I was missing a good chunk of length from it.  Agggghhhhhhhhh.  I ended up piecing it together on the outer layer strategically underneath where the front belt loops sit so no one is the wiser. (Well obviously you all know now, but you can keep a secret right?)  I did the facing with diagonal seams to piece it together a little more discreetly, although now that I think about it, it's really not like anyone is going to be seeing the facing of my pant's waistband.  Huh.  Could have saved myself some time if I'd thought of that fact earlier and not been so stressed about disguising my pieced together fabric!  Ha ha!

All's well that ends well though and I really love wearing these cropped denim Landers.  They are the comfiest pair of pants I own and as you can see from the photos I've shared here from Me Made May,  I reach for them time and time again. 

Now I just need to figure out what fabric to make my next pair out of.  I have some green twill that I'm hoping I have enough of for a pair of shorts, and I've got some light blue denim I could make another pair of cropped pants, but maybe I should do a twill of a different colour?  Or maybe a heavier linen? (I wonder if that would work.  Hmmmm.)  In the meantime, while I'm pondering my fabric choices, I guess I'll just have to keep washing and wearing these ones on constant rotation!

2018 Outfit Along

I can't believe that I actually managed to get my outfit done in time for the 2018 Outfit Along done.  I was sure that this year was going to be a bust, but by some sort of OAL miracle, I finished up the morning of the final day!

For those of you that may not know what the Outfit Along is, it is an annual event taking place on Ravelry in the Untangling Knots group.  Knitwear designer Andi Satterlund and Lauren of the famed Lladybird co-host the "along".  The goal is to knit a piece and sew a piece so that you end up with a complete outfit at the end of the two months.  There are official patterns each year, but participants are free to choose whichever patterns they want.  The outfit along is truly my very favourite "along" and I look forward to it every year.

This year's official patterns were the Waters Tee by Andi and the Lander Pants by True Bias and I decided to both.  Waters is a very simple top down knit tee that has a scoop back and almost boat neck front. I'm sure that the Lander Pants need no introduction.  I may, in fact, be the last person in the world to sew them up.  They've been out for ages now and are a high waisted, button fly, wide legged pant with three different length options.

While the Waters was a super simple pattern it took me what felt like forever to knit.  I think the combination of miles of stockinette stitch on tiny needles and fingering yarn slowed me down.  Combine that with my distinct lack of knitting mojo and I really didn't think I'd get finished within the two months of the challenge.  In fact had I not had a sudden short-lived burst of motivation in the last two weeks of the Outfit Along, I can guarantee that my top would not have been finished in time. (the mojo has once again disappeared, and I'm struggling to pick up my needles for any reason right now).  The Lander Pants sat waiting because to be honest the thought of having to go through the fitting of pants was really not what one could call enticing.  Pants.  Ugh...

Everyone has what seems to be some serious Lander love going on.  I definitely did not.  In fact I dubbed my the "No Love Landers" and thought I'd never wear them.  However, now that they're done and I have had some distance from sewing them, it turns out I'm wearing them quite a bit.  Fitting quickly became a nightmare - I clearly have no clue what size I really am when it comes to pants, because I am fairly certain I started out two sizes too big.  Of course I followed the steps according to the instructions which meant all the fancy bits like top stitching and the buttonholes and bar tacks for the fly were already done before I sewed up the side seams only to have the shorts fall straight off when I tried them on.  I was pretty peeved with myself for the rookie mistake and was determined I was going to get them to at least sort of passably fit before throwing my hands up in defeat and wasting all the effort of my top stitching not too mention my fabric.  I took a good inch and a half beyond the already allowed 1" side seam at the hips, about another 3/4" at the waist on either side, then took in the back center seam tapering from the original seam to a decrease of an 1 1/4" at centre back.  Then I shaved off a good 5/8" from the height in the back.  I still need to wear a belt with them or they're not staying up, but given how often I've worn them this week, maybe they deserve some love after all.

Waters is pretty good fit wise.  As it turns out I like to wear it backwards favouring the scoop neck in the front rather than the back.  Its kind of nice to choose whichever way I feel like wearing it depending on my mood.  I think I could have done with a few less waist decreases and a bit more length, but at the point I cast off I was just  happy to have it done on time.  I can live with the not re-doing the waist decreases, but I may at some point down the road add a bit of length to my tee to make it more comfortable for me.  It's not enough to keep me from wearing it  so we'll see.  I'd have to actually find my knitting mojo first.