Simplicity 1620 is a cute set of separates, which includes tops, dress, and pants. I decided to do the pants but oh my god was I shocked, disappointed, and completely confused as to how these pants that I made were the same pants as seen on the envelope.
I did use a heavier fabric than it called for, however, these pants are awful. For one, they are huge. I’ve gained weight so I remeasured myself to make sure I was making the right size. The pattern is for an elastic waist, pull-on pant, and I initially followed the directions to a T and I think I could have fit two of me into them.
I wish I had taken a photo of these pants when I first made them so you could see how bad they were, but I was honestly so shocked at their awfulness I set to work right away ripping them apart and remaking them.
When I started, I started out right. I traced my original pattern pieces onto kraft paper so not to cut the original pattern up. I elected to add pockets, which are easy enough to draft yourself. The trick is just making sure the opening edge is large enough to admit your hand easily after sewing it in.
I cut my fabric, which was a not-very-heavy red corduroy that I originally bought to make a jumper with. I figured I’d either have really cool pants (That make unfortunate noise when I walk) or I would have wasted the approximately $10 I spent on this fabric off of eBay.
I followed the directions to a T, as I said above, and ended up with awful, super bulky pants that made me look like I weighed about 400 pounds.
I ripped out the waist casing and tossed the elastic aside. I grabbed my tape measure and started marking darts- 4 front and 4 back. That took up about 12 inches of fabric from the waistline and when I tried them on I could just wiggle them over my hips. I took the extra fabric and cut a waistband and stitched that in place, and I added a front zipper with a button and loop closure on the waistband.
I tried them on. The fit at the waist and upper hip was good, but they were so big everywhere else. I decided to take them in from about 3 inches down from the waistband to 3/4 of the way down the leg about 2″. Basically I cut a straight line from one point to the other. Stitched them. Tried them on again.
They were better but still not great. The back fit pretty well but the front was really poofy and just awful. I now looked like I weighed about 300 pounds. An improvement from 400, but still not okay. 😉
Finally I stitches a line of basting down the hips, closing off the pockets. My beloved pockets. I tried them on. I saw most of the poof was gone out of the front and they laid much flatter. I looked closer to my actual weight. Time to grab the scissors and cut off the pockets and sew things up for real!
Here’s the final outcome after all of those adjustments and changes.
I feel like I finally have a wearable pair of pants, though not the best fitting ones.
Would I use this pattern again? Probably not, even knowing what mods to make to make them “okay”, because in all honesty, they are barely what I can call okay. I will however, look forward to sewing other pants that are hopefully much better fitting and not needing so many modifications just to make them semi-wearable.
Oh, and did I mention I bought a serger? Its just a basic model but I for to use it for most of these pants! That was after my first one broke after less then 30 seconds of use and i had to return it to Amazon for a replacement. This one seems to be doing much better though!
