When I finished these pants and ran upstairs from my craft room to see how they looked with shoes, I got so hyped when I saw myself in the mirror that I started dancing in my bathroom, and I managed to press record on my phone just in time to capture it. This is how the idea of a hashtag joyously celebrating a sewist’s Lander Pants completion officially began on instagram, and with the help of a few lovely sewists who chimed in to suggest it be a thing (including the awesome designer of the pants herself!), LanderPantsDance went viral!!!!
Okay, maybe not viral.
But I’ve been tagged in AT LEAST 4 posts of other sewists dancing in their Lander Pants, and that’s enough for me, haha!
What can I say about these pants?? First of all, I was SO STOKED when True Bias released the design. They happened to be the spitting image of a pair of wide legged jeans I tried to hack early this year only to watch them suffer a bizarre and untimely demise when the front legs twisted so dramatically in the front that the side seams traveled across the fronts of my legs. Only thing I can come up with is that they were cut severely off-grain, but…they weren’t! I know, because I was there! Anyways, that WIP has been languishing in the Butthole Bin for the longest, so when I saw the design for the Lander Pants, I realized that my dreams of owning a 70’s inspired pair of wide legged trousers could still be a reality for me! Weirdly enough, I didn’t make them in denim, but more on that later.
I made these pants in less than two days, and I have to say, the fit is pretty terrific. It helps that they have such wide legs, so after you get the shaping and fitting for the waist and hips right, the rest is a breeze. But also know that I have read Heather Lou of Closet Case Files’ e-book for jeans making and blog posts about pants fitting extensively, so all the successes I have with pants is 100% due to her (if you are stressed about/unsure of the process, read her materials! They are concise, easy-to-comprehend, and most importantly, they work!)
One thing I learned from Heather’s series of how-tos is that I need to draft a curved waistband for pretty much any fitted pants design I want to wear. I actually just use the same pattern piece from the Ginger Jeans that I adapted for my body, and I sub it in for other pants patterns that have roughly the same waistband size. Instead of a straight or very slightly curved rectangle for the waistband, which works on many bodies that don’t have a big difference between their waist and hips, I redrafted it so that the top of the waistband has a deeper curve, which allows it to lay right up against my waist instead of gaping like pretty much every RTW pair of pants does on me. I used this waistband on my Landers and of course it worked a real treat!
For a round bottomed girl, I thought these pants fit pretty great right out the box. I didn’t do much adjusting with them after using my curved waistband; I think I brought in the back seam just a bit at the very top at the waist, and when I make them again I might 1. dig out a tiny bit of room in the back crotch curve for the teeniest bit more space and 2. elongate the fly (why I didn’t do this from the beginning I have no idea- sometimes I like to try the original pattern as-is before making too many drastic changes to it but I need to be real with myself- a longer fly front on pants is pretty much a necessity for me across the board). My favorite thing about the pattern is that the leg pieces are drafted with a 1 inch seam allowance on the outside seams so that you can baste and fit as you are going, which was incredibly helpful! I muslined these pants and I needed to add about a 1/4 inch more room at the side seams around the thickest part of my body, but that was just to ensure that I maintained a 5/8 seam allowance- I definitely could have made the adjustment with the pants pattern pieces as drafted.
As is well-documented here on this blog, I am not crazy about wearing black clothing (how Katie from What Katie Sews does it so brilliantly, I will never know!) and this make honestly did little to change my mind. The fabric itself is brilliant- perfect weight, easy to sew with, feels soft but sturdy- I just wish it was in a different color, and unfortunately black was all I could find when I was shopping for corduroy. Why did I choose corduroy instead of denim, you may ask? No idea. In my quest for a beautiful and versatile fall wardrobe, corduroy kept popping up for me so I just kind of stuck with it- I thought it would be a fun textile and a nice change from denim. But in addition to the color just not doing it for me personally, I think it also hides all the cool details of these pants (textile included) which is what got me so excited about making them in the first place. You can’t really see how cute the big patch pockets are on the fronts, can’t see the meticulously sewed topstitching on the waistband and pockets and belt loops- I feel like the dark color just sucks up all the extra cool things about this make. But it’s ok! I am just going to consider them a wearable muslin (because I still think they are super cute and I know I will get some wear out of them) and make my next pair in the washed denim that I originally envisioned them in! And then I can also put a tiny bit more room in the crotch and lengthen the fly front so that getting in and out of the pants is easier.
Speaking of fly fronts, this button fly was the first I had ever constructed and it was SO fun! After making so many jeans I have become pretty confident with inserting a zip fly, but for some reason I was anxious about a button fly- probably just because it was a journey into the unknown. But I shouldn’t have been worried at all; the button fly was way easier and quicker to construct than a zip fly and I absolutely love the way it looks. The instructions for the fly, as with everything else, were super easy to follow and well thought out, and I honestly couldn’t believe how quickly this pattern came together. They were a dream to sew! I decided to use the longer view of the design (they also come in a cropped and shorts length) and then I added a few extra inches because I wanted my hems to cover my shoes and just barely skim the ground, which the longest view of this pattern does not do. It was an easy fix and I am happy with the length. The only real thing I am unhappy about with these pants (aside from the color) is the fear that my thighs are going to start a fire every time I walk around. The zipzipzipzip sound is deafening! I forgot what a weirdo fabric corduroy can be, but whatever- people won’t even notice it when they are so bowled over by this wicked FIT! 😉
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