Augusta Moto Pants By DIBY Club

{AD} A few weeks back I was asked by the lovely folks at DIBY Club to review one of their patterns and today I have the pleasure of showing you my latest project, the DIBY Augusta Moto Pants.

 So the DIBY part of the name actually stands for Do It Better Yourself and when I was contacted I was intrigued to find out more about them. I was pleasantly surprised to read how the company prides itself in giving you access to every tool you need to make your projects in the form of many tutorials, extensive instructions with RTW construction method suggestions and loads of fitting advise. That last bit really appealed to me because I’m a stickler for good fit, so you can understand why I was keen to try one of their designs.

Disclosure: **This is an Advertorial Feature. I was provided with the moto pattern and asked to write a full review on it. I only ever work with brands that I would be happy to recommend to readers of my blog and I never use pre-written content. All opinions are my own. Please see my Disclosure Policy for full details of what an AD means **

But enough with the introductions, I want to show you my motos. As the name suggests this design has classic moto pants features with a tucked thigh panel and seamed knee panels. It’s a style of pant that I’ve always had a soft spot for and I even made myself a watered-down version several years back in burgundy though sadly I can’t show you as they’re long gone worn out and gone. The Augusta pattern, however, ticks all the boxes for me for a new and updated project.

 The pattern size range goes from 00 to 20 in the misses range and 14 to 36 in the plus-size range, so it’s really size-inclusive which is fabulous. This design is rated 3.5 out of 5 difficulty level…I think this is a pretty fair rating because there are some detailed and tricky techniques involved in the making so you need to be quite a confident sewer.

 Fabric suggestions for the pants are stretch wovens, stretch denim, Ponte knit or stretch denim twill. I had nearly enough of this charcoal Ponte in my stash so I decided to order a little more and use it. It’s a good medium/heavyweight knit for the pants. 

Once I’d gathered the rest of my supplies I printed and assembled my PDF. You can choose between A0 copy shop, A4 or US Letter and you can also use the layers feature if you want…but here’s the best bit if you use the A4 option like I did…no trimming! Yay! I hate the trimming bit of PDF’S so I love that you don’t have to. 

There’s brilliant advice within the instructions about measuring yourself and deciding which size to cut plus how to grade between sizes and adjust your patterns for length (video tutorials too). I read them thoroughly and I’m glad I did because it turns out that my legs are longer from hip to knee and a little shorter from knee to ankle. These measurements are crucial to the design because you don’t want your knee panel halfway up your thigh, lol! I cut most of my pants on the size 10 (I’m 38” hips) and graded out at the waist and also at the knees because I have pudgy bits of flesh on my inner knees so I needed a bit more room there 🙂

The first stage of sewing up was to create the tucked thigh panels and I hit a bit of a snag. The instructions have you press the tuck lines and then stitch along the folds. My Ponte knit was stubbornly bouncy though and didn’t seem to want to hold a crease very well so I ended up having to baste my lines instead. A bit time consuming but worth the effort. I’m so pleased with the effect! Here are a couple of progress photos: 

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Next up was the knee panels and lower legs then onto the zip fly which is constructed using RTW methods. Again, there’s a fab video tutorial to follow for this stage. I’ve got to say that I really am impressed with how thorough each stage of the instructions is written with diagrams, tips on different construction methods etc. 

I found a bit of leftover wool blend striped fabric for my fly and used it on the pocket bags too. See here:

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I didn’t add any rivets to my front or back pockets because I felt like they wouldn’t look right on the Ponte knit, but they would look great on a denim version. Anyway, after sewing my front and back pockets, stitching the crotch plus inside leg seams, I was able to baste on the waistband and try the pants on for fit. At this point, I realised that I’d got my stitching a little tight across the knee panels and unfortunately I cracked my topstitching. The instructions say to use a longer length stitch which I did but I think maybe I should have gone bit longer and stretched as I sewed. Sooooo…I had to get out my seam ripper and re-do them. Oh well..you live and learn eh?
Once I was back on track I checked out the fit and had to scoop the back crotch seam for my flat, low butt and take a smidge in down the thighs. I’d already straightened the crotch curve which I knew I needed from my experience making other pants. Then thankfully rest of the sewing went smoothly.

I’m thrilled with my new motos and I reckon they’ll look great with ankle boots and sweaters once Fall/Autumn gets going. The photos you see here were taken on a rather hot evening so I had to think of a way to style them for warmer weather otherwise I’d have melted!. Good old Pinterest came to the rescue for ideas and I went with a simple white top and my nude bootie-style sandals. I noticed that after the car journey to the photo location they’ve loosened a little around the crotch/hip area so I might shave a little in down the sides. Maybe I should have sized down a little in that area, but I’m not keen on overly tight clothes anyway so I’ll see how they are after a couple of more wears. Other than that they are really comfy.  By the way, you can see other versions of the Augusta motos in this gallery. I especially like the look of the ones with the faux leather thigh panel!

All, in all making my pants was an enjoyable experience and I’m impressed with the pattern and the thorough way that everything has been thought through to help sewers to achieve a lovely make. Although my pattern is for the more experienced sewer there are patterns to suit all abilities in the DIBY range and if you fancy trying out one for free there are even a few free designs too.

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Thank you so much to DIBY for an enjoyable collab 🙂

I’ll leave you with a few more pics…oh, and I have to thank my hubby for being a good sport and pressing the button on the camera. I often use a remote release, but this time I set it all up on the tripod and gave him strict instructions to just press the shutter when I gave him the nod (he’s so not a photographer, lol!)

Let me know if you’ve tried DIBY out before and whether or not you’re a fan of this style pant in the comments, or are you tempted to try the style?

Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you next week.

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