11 abr 2022

The Making of - Persephone Pants

It took me more than a couple of tries to really understand why everyone was obssesed with these pair of diy pants

If you've been following me on ig for a while maybe you remember I did a pair of Persephone Pants last year. I made them for my 28th birthday on 2020. At first they were quite tight and almost immediately I simply didn't fit because I gained a lot of weight. Here a pic of those estranged pants in black and white.

“I could go on and on forever about my weight gained BUT instead of it, I decided to simply make a new pair with my current measurements.”

Here a tiny chart comparing my 2020 measurements against my current 2021 ones and the indicated pattern measurements from the Persephone Pants Sewing instructions. In 2020 I made the size 12, and today I am between 16 and 18. My first step was choosing size 18 to retrace onto a new piece of paper to keep my original intact. Regardless of my measurements I did notice the style of this pants is very fitted, and because I prefer a looser fit, I chose the larger between 16 and 18. I did a muslin sample straight size 18 and it was HUGE for me at the waist, everything was very comfortable at the hip tho. So I decided to do a second muslin grading the waist from 18 to 16. The dotted line below shows this step.

The second muslin was way better, but here it starts to get more intresting. Size 18 hip perfect fit. Size 16 waist at the front perfect fit, BUT size 16 waist at the back, very poorly fitted, it has way too big. This I believe is thanks to my tummy being larger than my back, projecting the whole garment towards the front. The front needs more space due to my tummy, and my back waist needs less as seen on the pic below.

Since I didn't want to mess up the perfect and comfy front, I decided not to reduce the overall sizing of the waist, but to remove the excess space at the back only. With the muslin on, I took the measurement I wanted to get rid of. In the image below you can see I took off 6 cm in total, 3 cm on either side of the Center Back (CB) in pants and waistband. This new muslin fitted like a fancy glove.

In order to remove thos 3 cm in a balanced way, I took off 2 cm from CB and 0.5 cm on either side of the back dart. That results in 6 cm total at the waist circumference, 3 cm on each side of the total backside. To finish with the pattern alteration, I retraced the whole waistline with its corresponding darts and notches because I also wanted to add 2 cm at the CB height. So, by maintaining the CF still, I pivoted the CB upwards. Below you can see how the pink dot, the original CB turns into the orange dot by moving 2 cm upwards and to the left towards the Side Seam.

Lastly, from the knee notch to the floor I took my measurement and shortened the length by 12 cm because I am only 160cm tall. This way I cut all my pieces onto my fabric, a beautifull 50% CO / 50% poly olive canvas. It's important to note that my fabric was 170cm wide, which luckily made it possible for me to fit the uni piece (in this pattern there is no side seam, just a front and back together piece) Here a pic of all the pieces needed to create the button fly ready to be cut.

For the sewing bit I followed all sewing instructions from Anna Allen, the only thing that gave me a bit of a fight was to adjust my overlock settings to have clean and neat finishings. My fav part of all was the button fly, it requires lots of precision and attention to detail. Although my sewing machine is a diva for sewing buttonholes we managed and they turned out great. Even if they are not visible from the outside they are my favorite bit, I am proud of myself for it.

I am VERY pleased with my new pair of pants, all the effort I went with the fit modification was worth it. I still think tho, that this style of pants is for a very specific body shape. It's quite difficult to alter the pattern to fit into more voluminous tummies, I think this is because of the lack of side seam, maybe? The sewing bit is a breeze, but the pattern customization not so much.