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This is a tale of two pairs of pants – both made by me.

I’m LOVING the new loose dresses I bought and have made, but leggings (even the soft, loose ones I bought from Gudrun Sjödén) aren’t as comfortable as I’d like.

I love the look of pants under these loose dresses…

But the waistband on the Gudrun pants is a smidge too tight and a smidge too high for my body.

So I made a pair of pants!

I used the Nocturne Pajamas pattern from Sew Liberated, using the lower-rise waistband without the paperbag detail.

Yes – technically they’re pajamas – but pants are pants. Right?

We’ll get back to that.

I changed the pocket style from a seam pocket (I don’t like the way they gap open) to a set-in slash pocket. It’s an easy modification, and I’ll do a tutorial showing how the next time I make a pair.

I used a linen-viscose blend and they’re very soft and comfy – but they did shrink a LOT after I made them. Even though I washed in cold and hung them to dry, I lost a couple of inches in length after a few washes. I ended up taking out my double-turned hem AND adding a band of additional fabric from my leftovers to get them back to the correct length.

So I love the pants, and the color works well with both of my new dresses.

Success!

I wanted to make another pair, and that’s where things went off the rails.

I was poking through my archives to write one of my Friday newsletters and I found this fabric that I designed in 2023.

I LOVE THIS FABRIC! 😍

But I never used it for anything. 🙁

What if I made myself a pair of pants with this fabric? It’d look really fun under a black dress – which I don’t yet have but will make someday.

But what if I make a t-shirt with one of the birds on it? Then it’ll be like a cool coordinating set! It might be a lot of look, but maybe with a black cardigan to tone things down a bit?

So I had the t-shirt printed.

And I ordered the fabric for the pants. I ordered organic cotton sateen because that’s what I use in my quilts, and that’s what my bedding is made with. It washes up beautifully, the colors remain vibrant, and it’s super soft.

That was a mistake, but we’ll get to that.

I made the pants, really taking my time with all the finishes like French seams. They are a beautiful pair…

…of pajamas.

*headdesk*

How could I have gone so wrong?

I mean, I did use a pajama pants pattern.

And I did use a fabric normally used to make pajamas.

And that fabric does have a very pajama-ish print – especially in this context.

So how did I end up with something that looks like pajamas? 🤣

I addition to all that, the pants are HUGE! How are they so huge? I used the exact same pattern pieces I used for the linen pants.

You know, the ones that shrank so much I had to add more fabric to the hems. 🙄

Of course they didn’t just shrink in length! I measured the new shrunken-but-actually-fit-perfectly-now pants and they are a full size smaller than the newly-made tiki pants.

But the cotton isn’t going to shrink more after its single wash. They’ll soften up so they’ll hang a little nicer, but they aren’t going to get any smaller.

Maybe they’ll still work under a still-to-be-made black dress, but for now they’re strictly wear-at-home pants, which is exactly what I’m trying to get away from with the Wardrobe Project.

Chalk this one up in the fail column. 🙁

But I did learn things!

• Wash linen multiple times before cutting it. I’ve ordered this fabric to make a dress and you better believe I’ll be sending it through the washer and dryer multiple times before I use it.
• I can use a pajama pants pattern for regular pants, but maybe only in a solid color. The linen pants are still great, and I’ve ordered some black tencel twill for my next pair. Tencel twill is soft and has a really nice drape to it, so I think they’ll be great.
• My next pair will be a size smaller.

I still need more dresses! I’ve decided to duplicate the purple one I’m wearing in this post, but it has pin tucks that only go partway down the front and I’m not sure how to do that – so I’m taking a class at Modern Domestic! It starts later this month and I can’t wait!

Maybe I can make a dress with that tiki fabric?