Perspephone Pants

When I first saw the Persephone Pants by Anna Allen making the rounds on instagram and the blog world, I assumed they were a part of a bandwagon that I needed to stay off of. I had learned my lesson with the Terra Pants earlier this year, a slouchy, drop-crotched tailored pants pattern that people were head over heels for, but that looked absolutely HORRIBLE on me when I made them up. Construction-wise they were beautiful and the process was really fun, but they just didn’t hit any part of my body in the way they were supposed to. Not everything is made for everybody, and that’s an important lesson to learn. But another important lesson? Just because you think they aren’t for you doesn’t mean that they won’t be- sometimes it’s just a crapshoot and you have to take the risk!

I’m really really really glad that I decided to give the Persephone Pants a try because on paper they were not going to be an ideal match for me. The silhouette looked cool on the models in the photos for the pattern but I was afraid they were going to completely engulf my small frame with the width of those legs paired with the ankle length crop. But what seemed even more problematic for me was the the design element that had made them so popular- they don’t have side seams! The pants are only connected at the inseam and the crotch, which gives the pants a very streamlined, funky look, but for someone like me who has a 2 size difference between waist and hips, I rely heavily on side seams to get a good fit around my hips and thighs, so the absence of them seemed like it was just going to create a massive headache and an unwearable garment, much like those beautiful Terra Pants.

But then I saw lady Katie of WhatKatieSews rocking them on IG and talking them up big time. I recalled that she usually had to grade patterns for a size difference between her waist and hips and I asked her how she was able to accommodate her figure without use of the side seams. She responded that because there are back waist darts, she was able to modify them to nip in more where she needed them to and the alteration was easy and successful. Hmmm…intriguing! But dare I rely on one sole person who happens to look amazing in them? Everyone looked amazing in the Terra Pants, too….everyone except me!

And then I came across a blog post written by a Very Purple Person. She too looked amazing in her Persephones, but she also shared her measurements (something I have only recently realized can be incredibly helpful information to share in blog posts!) which were the same as mine, and this was the last nudge I needed. If her hips and waist could accommodate the darts and lack of side seams then I imagined I would fare just as well as she did, and thankfully I was right, because I really love these pants!

First I made them in a mid-to-heavy weight denim that I found at Joann’s when on a run for notions. I rarely fabric shop at Joann’s because the quality of the bolts can be all over the place- don’t get me wrong, they have some great finds on their shelves, but I have always had to hunt really hard for them, and with a (now sadly, defunct) The Fabric Store nearby, my time was always better spent in a curated shop. Anyways, I just so happened to run into Mimi G on this day that I made a run to my local Joann’s, and she had found the prettiest pineapple-print rayon that she was going to make into a shirt dress, so I felt inspired to spend a little time roaming the aisles to find something good for my project. To be fair, their selection of denim and twill is always pretty decent, because those seem to be good workhorse fabrics that everyone likes to sew with. I really like the blue color of this 100% cotton denim, which was slightly bleached-looking and gave me serious 80’s vibes as soon as I saw it.

The denim was great to sew with and the construction was mostly straightforward til I got to the button fly insertion. Now I had read on several blog posts that these instructions were particularly clear and concise and that people who had trouble inserting button-flies on other projects got through this with a breeze. I myself had done a few successful button flies and tons of zipper flies at this point so I had no doubt that I would fly (ba-dum-ching) through this part. Imagine my surprise when I simply could not make the pieces lay down right and get my topstitching to look clean at all. I took the damn thing out three times but still! I could not get it right!

The only major difference I could tell from making this fly and the countless others in my arsenal was that I usually sew the crotch seam of the front pieces together in the first step- I baste the fly extensions together til the bottom of the extension shape, where they curve and meet the crotch seam, then I change to a regular stitch to sew the remainder of the seam, and then I sew in my zipper. But if I remember these steps correctly (since I made these a few months ago), the Persephone pants instruct you to complete the whole zip insertion before sewing the two front pattern pieces together at the crotch. In doing that it was really difficult for me to get my sewing needle all the way up to the point where the fly extension ends and becomes the crotch seam, because the button fly and extension pieces were so bulky. So there was always a tiny little gap right beneath it that would look even more obvious once I tried to topstitch over it. After two unsuccessful tries, the only way I could make it look right was to take the whole thing out, sew the bottom part of the seam first as I usually do, and then re-insert the zipper.

I have seen several people’s finished Persephones and they all look amazing, including their button flies, and I only saw one other person comment on my IG about having a lot of difficulty with this part of the instructions, so I am going to chalk my issue up to either user error or ultra bulky fabric, but it still seems worth mentioning here in my blog post. And after all that, I have actually decided that I DON’T LIKE the button fly at all! It looks great as a design choice, but as far as wearing them (and this might also be due to my fairly thick denim), after a couple of hours of movement, the fly gets a lot of creases and folds and the whole crotch area starts to look bulky and a bit sloppy. I never even considered changing out the jeans buttons for regular flat buttons as another brilliant blogger on instagram did, which keeps the whole area looking a bit flatter, but even so, I decided to make my second pair of these (the yellow denim) using a zip fly with my preferred method of insertion.

I also lengthened the fly, since I need more room to get these hips into such a small waistband, used my curved waistband, and added some pockets to the back, which I think worked out very well. The curved waistband didn’t change the fit at all since the pants sit so high and I don’t really curve like that around my abdomen, but I will keep all the other changes I made for future pairs. The fabric for these is the goldenrod Cone Mills denim that Threadbare Fabrics has been carrying in her shop, and once it arrived in the mail, I decided to use the wrong side of the denim on a whim. The goldenrod is beautiful and vibrant, but I liked the pastel hue of the “wrong” side a lot, and I am so pleased with my decision! One weird thing that happened during construction of my golden pair was that I cut out the cropped length of these pants as opposed to the regular length (which is how I cut out my first pair- what the heck happened?!) and I didn’t realize it until it was too late. Unfortunately the shorter length was NOT okay on me, so I had to cut out a cuff to make up for the lost length, and lop it onto the bottom of the legs. I was afraid that it would look really obvious and be distracting, but holy cow you can’t even see it in these pictures, and even close up it looks like a subtle design choice.

Fly preference and construction aside, these pants for me were a relatively quick make, and I am still amazed at how easy it was to fit a pair of pants on this booty without any side seams while still getting a smooth and sleek silhouette. I love the pocket construction in the front- I can’t fit much more than a tube of chapstick and some dollar bills in there but I love that they are hidden and don’t interrupt the lines of the garment while still offering at least something in the ways of clothing storage, haha. A lot of sewists compare this pattern to the Landers by True Bias (made here) which are also a really fantastic wide legged silhouette with a more traditional design, namely side seams and back pockets. Although they are super similar, I think I like the Persephones a little more- the waist comes up a bit higher on me which I always love, but the shape of the leg is different- the Landers have the tiniest hint of a flare at the bottom of the leg but the Perspehones go straight down from the thigh to the ankle, and I personally think that’s a bit more flattering on my short body.

My blue pair is really comfortable but gets a little saggy after a couple of wears and my yellow pair fits much more snugly but can cut a bit into my belly if I am sitting in a weird position (i.e. slumped, which is my fav stance, lol). Maybe my third pair will be the perfect balance between the two? Fingers crossed! Oh, and before I forget- the pink mules paired with the blue denim are me-made as are the orange and brown sandals with the yellow pair of persephones, and the blue FLINT t-shirt is RTW while the cropped white shirt is my first Kalle!

PS Just realized that after all that talk about how nice it is to know someone’s measurements accompanied with their makes, I forgot to mention mine, lol. Waist is 26.5 and hips are 37!