McCalls 7445 Cropped Wide Leg Pants

Hi all! Before I get on with telling you about my latest make I just want to say a  really big thanks to all of you who entered Sleevefest. Helen and I did the random draw last week after which I announced the first 6 winners on my IG feed and congratulations go to @gabrielle_upsewlate, @girlsinthegarden, @oh_sew_she_sews, @lynsey_makes, @morrisews and @etcetorize…..Then we both chose our own 10 favourites and each narrowed it down to 5 for the final voting that was hosted by Helen on her IG page. There were some amazing entries all through the challenge and we were both blown away by the creativity of you all. There’s a lovely wrap-up post with photos of the final 10 sleeve entries in the voting section over on Helen’s blog (*update, Helen is no longer blogging) if you fancy popping over there for a read.  Many congratulations to @obsesssew (Ersan) who won the voting. Bravo! And please do stay tuned next year for a possible second ‘Fest’, so watch this space.

Right, let’s get back to the task at hand, shall we? And by that, I mean these wide-leg culotte/pants….and let me tell you…I am in love with the fit of these. I know I’m tooting my own horn, but I don’t think I’ve ever perfected the fit on something quite as much as these, I feel really pleased with myself :). I like how they hang at the back with no draglines. It’s actually the second time that I’ve made McCalls 7445 (only available on Amazon or eBay now). The first rust coloured pair appeared on this post with my refashioned top. And whilst they weren’t bad in the fit, I wasn’t too happy with the draglines and buckling that I had at the back. I’ve since altered them a bit and they are improved, but they still don’t fit as nicely as these do.

When I did a basic pattern cutting course many, many moons ago, I drafted a basic wide leg pants block. Then about a year ago I used the block as a base to make the grey culottes in last weeks post. I took that pattern and laid it onto the McCalls back pieces and compared the centre back fork and crotch curve. Now, I have an extremely non-existent backside…flat as a pancake!  (and low-slung too…sheesh!) Which consequently means, for a looser fit silhouette, that I need next to no angle in the centre fork. If you look at the comparison photo you can see the difference. I also need the crotch curve to dip down a little to accommodate my lower derriere. It’s surprising the difference these changes make.

Note that the back of my re-shaped pattern is also a little wider so that it falls away nicely.                                                                             The obligatory backside shot :/

I ought to just mention my fabric. It’s a lightweight wool and lycra blend, with a grey background and turquoise and toffee pinstripes down it. Normally I wouldn’t look twice at an ordinary pinstripe fabric but the bright turquoise lines really lift this and of course, I wear a lot of toffee/camel tones. It was bought from Ditto Fabrics last year. Being a wool blend it was most likely destined to be dry cleaned (I don’t recall what it said on the website)…and yet I pre-washed it on a 30-degree setting and it came out lovely. I’ll definitely be able to wash it from now on and save myself some pennies in dry cleaning bills. Do you do this with some fabrics?

Anyway, back to the pants themselves. Apart from my fit tweak, I didn’t stray away from the pattern except for cutting the side pocket panels on the bias to make the square opening stand out more. I made view C with the higher rise and fly-covered zip. There’s minimal topstitching and just machine stitched hems (I didn’t have enough length for a deeper hand stitched hem) The instructions and fit notes are well written and quite easy to understand, but then I’m quite a fan of Melissa Watson and Palmer/ Pletsch. The pants and jacket fitting books written by Palmer/Pletsch are wonderful.

Now that I have these new pants McCalls 7445 cropped wide leg pants, I might need another cropped sweater like the one I showed you in my previous post. Any excuse eh?!

Thanks for reading and see you next time x

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