New pants!! I may look like a scarecrow or some kind of gigantic boy who eats soup and says “Gee!”, but I feel like a time traveler from nineteen-seventycute.
I actually know exactly what caused me to make these pants: I got chilly. I love the look of cropped pants but sometimes I want continuous coverage! This past spring I modified some patterns to make my own version of the Anna Allen Persephone pants, which I call my Perse-phonies, but this is my first time making them full-length.
I’m happy with them, even though they’re less structured than I pictured. I used Kaufman 10 oz. Denim in Indigo Washed; it’s non-stretch denim but I wouldn’t say rigid. It’s pretty soft and drapey. It was lovely to sew, and wide enough that I could fit both legs side-by-side, but now I’m a bit baffled about what to do with the leftovers. It’s probably too heavy for a shirt but I don’t really want more jean shorts and it’s not heavy enough for a bag. I anticipated having to place the legs vertically, so I have a healthy piece left over. Any suggestions?
Oh, another note about the fabric – it has a smell when it gets ironed. I’ve encountered it in denim before, and it’s hard to describe. It’s musty. Not nice. It’s not awful, either, but it does sort of…exist, more than I’d like. This is after a white-vinegar wash, by the way!
I guess it’s not really useful to talk about fit when we don’t have the common touchstone of a shared pattern but next time I should probably adjust for a protruding seat and protruding front thighs. If I was just prioritizing one, I’d fix the seat, because while I don’t mind wrinkles under my bum I could live without the horizontal wrinkles between the darts.
I cut the legs extra-long so I could make a deep hem.
2.75” finished, and I could stand to round up to 3”!
You can really see the tension on the buttons here, by the way. A zipper distributes that tension evenly across l’estomac but I like the vintage flavor of a button fly with this silhouette. I used five buttons, as usual, and I stitched horizontal lines between the buttonholes, a good tip from Fabrics-store. I also topstitched the inseam from the hems up, stopping about 1” from either side of the crotch seam. It’s barely possible I could have done this in a single pass of continuous stitching. I stand by the easy way, though; it works!
My black pair of these has no pockets which is NOT COOL, PAST LIA but I patch-pocketed this pair right up.
One on the rear, which is in slightly the wrong spot because I placed it with the jeans on, accidentally pinned through the denim to my underwear, and then took out the pins so I could escape and thought “I’ll remember where it goes” (I didn’t).
It’s also oddly narrow! Ask me how often I look at my own butt, though. Never, except in these photos. So it stays.
And these notched patch pockets in front!
The notch was part of my initial vision and I’m not sure why; I go back and forth over whether they’re worse than a regular pocket or kind of cool. Is the process totally self-evident? I made some diagrams anyway.
You might argue – too many diagrams???
I also have a secret pocket! I’m calling it a protest pocket – not to be accessed during normal wear, but just the right size for an ID, a little cash, and a hand-written list of phone numbers. Mine is underneath my patch pocket, but you could sew it to one layer of a pocket bag, too.
Normally I’d make it deep rather than wide, but I really wanted to use that selvedge!
I mean, right?
Oh and, US voters, don’t forget to make your voting plan! Register, request a mail ballot, donate to The Movement Voter Project, etc. I’m voting Biden/Harris. Feeling unenthusiastic? Professor Boyfriend (and literal professor of Political Science) and a friend (and leader of the CCR) have made this website which I highly recommend, whether you’re feeling a bit blah, or an engaged voter looking to motivate others!
In other news: I got a haircut and my neck is FREEEE, and I recently learned I’ve been spelling selvedge wrong this whole time (‘selvage’). What can I say, I keep busy.
I think that’s it, except that I almost rehomed this shirt but now I’m glad I didn’t. Later, dears!
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Pattern: Perse-phonies
Pattern cost: NA
Size: ?? 31” waist, 43” hip
Supplies: 3 yards of Kaufman 10 oz. Denim in Indigo Washed, $32.60, fabric.com; thread, buttons from stash
Total time: 5.75 hours
Total cost: $32.60
Poundcake 
Yep, those are 1970s cute! I’m with you on the longer leg length for winter. Of course, in the 70s we actually wore them even longer so that the hems would drag in the mushy dirty snow and sand, and bring all that inside with us. Bad idea — why was that a good thing? We constantly had to replace the bottom hem of our jeans as the bottom inch or two wore out. Disgusting, don’t go there. Love your protest pocket!
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That’s exactly how I wore my jeans in the early 2000s! I was so frightened of highwaters I’d rather have a raggedy hem hanging off the back of the leg because I stepped on it so many times. “MOM, THIS IS HOW I LIKE IT!” <– Ew, why?! Haha!
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They look great – really remind me of a pair of my Mum’s jeans from the 1970s. Could you make something like a Helen’s Closet York Pinafore with the leftovers?
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Ooh, interesting idea – I’ve never used a Helen’s Closet pattern but I’ve heard good things! And thanks for your kind words! 🙂
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Thumbs up for the ’70s time traveler jeans, the diagrams and the voting website!
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Thank you! 😀
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I really love those pants! Recently I’m ALL OVER the wide pants trend.
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Thanks! Me too – though I feel like I’m on a slippery slope to JNCOs. XD
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Love the pants! How do you do your white vinegar wash? I recently finished a pair of jeans and my hands are blue whenever I wear them.
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Thanks! I don’t know if it’s the best way, but I throw a healthy glug of white vinegar into the water before adding the fabric (it’s a top-loading machine), run the wash, and then dry the fabric on hot. My hope is that a hot dryer can set stains, so it might set dye too!
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Ah thanks! I’ll have to give it a try. I’ll probably skip the hot dryer cuz I’m nervous about shrinking my hard hard work (all that topstitching!) but hopefully the vinegar wash will do the trick.
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