Ever since I saw my friend Jane parading down the runway at the Rocky Mountain Sewing Expo in a pair of “Laurie’s Pants” from Silhouette Patterns, I’ve been thinking about making a pair for myself.  Jane said the pants were comfortable.  And for me, they just looked fun.  But I wasn’t sure that all that swishy fabric would look good on me.  Curiosity overwhelmed and I finally bought the pattern.

Doesn’t Jane look great?

I opened the pattern package with excitement.  Boy, those pattern pieces were huge!  The pattern comes in 8 sizes: 1 through 4 and 5 through 8.  I knew I was going to make size 1 (Silhouette Patterns provide finished garment sizes so you can choose your ease).  I immediately threw out the size 5 to 8 pattern pieces to reduce the number of tissue pieces by half.

In order to be sure of sizing, I made a muslin of just the top part of the pants in size 1.  I ended up removing 1.5″ in the crotch front and back to lower the waistline, using some great advice regarding crotch adjustments from the pattern instructions.  I ended up shortening the fabric “skirt” pieces by 1.5″ as well later on.

I deliberately purchased some inexpensive fabric at Hancock Fabrics so I could make a test garment.  The pants were made with a lightweight black fabric from the clearance section and the overlay was also a “value” fabric.  The overlay fabric unraveled like crazy! I made the pants first, overlocking all of the seams.  Then I made the skirt overlay.  Each piece in the overlay (there are 4) needed all edges to be overlocked before I could sew them together as they were just falling apart as I watched.  The four pieces were then stitched together part way down their lengths.  Then the “raw” edges needed to be hemmed.  This was a long process as the fabric was difficult to handle.  In a perfect world, I would have mastered a better edge finishing technique and used it, but I’m really just too impatient.

The skirt was then attached at the waist to the pants and a standard elastic waistband put in place. Then I hemmed the pants legs and tried them on.

Well I was initially in horror at the sheer volume of the pants and the overlay.  There was just no way I was ever going to wear these pants in public.  My husband thought that perhaps they’d look better on a leggier individual (like the model on the pattern envelope).  Or perhaps they’d look better if the skirt overlay had been shortened by about 4″.  Or perhaps the two fabrics I chose were just too constrasting.  But then I put on my black turtleneck and a black belt and it looked just a little better.  And the overskirt didn’t look *that* long.  So in the end, I think they’ll be a keeper, but I may not make another pair for a little while.