Ski resort Chic, Quilted Pants
Hi Friends,
Today I wanted to share with you the second garment I made from NewLook 6644. Interestingly… I think this is the first pattern that I have ever made all the included garments for… and I’m not gonna lie, this post ended up being over 1k words when I was finally done saying everything I wanted to so I’m going to split it into two posts.
The top I made in a luscious fur-backed sweat shirting with a modern face print, but I knew I wanted to make the pants too, and I took them in a totally different design direction than I have ever taken pants before. Quilted Pants!
I’ll be honest with you, I was kind of nervous about whether this look was going to make the grade, but I absolutely fell in love with this quilted fabric, and while making a jacket or cardigan was really tempting, the pants from this pattern were totally calling out to me.
Of course I did a cursory google search to see what kind of quilted pants existed in the world, and surprisingly there were more than I expected. I’ve been sewing for so long now, that sometimes I loose track of trends, because I don’t really shop ready to wear very often. So I accidentally hit on a ‘new to me’ garment category. The quilted pant… or maybe I should be saying, the quilted trouser for those of you in the UK, :).
Needless to say, having the idea and actually making the pants are two very different things, but I had a good starting point with NewLook 6644… however, what I didn’t take into account, is that the pattern is for a non-stretch woven, and the quilted fabric does have a decent amount of give to it.
When the fabric came, I was just as smitten with it as I was when I saw it online. Its two layers of a soft jersey with a thin layer of batting in the middle and then all quilted together. The right side of the fabric has little raised dots covered in gold foil… but be warned friends, that gold foil does not take kindly to pressing… so do your best to avoid it or you’ll be left with white raised dots instead of gold raised dots.
For some reason when cutting out my pattern pieces, maybe out of habit, I made sure to cut them out such that the stretch went across my body. Because of that, the fact that Big Four patterns tend to be a little big on me, and the fact that I needed (aka wanted) to make these pants slimmer to offset the bulk that came from the quilting, I ended up taking in the inseam and side seams below the pockets a decent amount with a bit of a taper toward the ankle. I probably could have done with taking them in above the pockets as well, but A, the pockets were already sewn up and B, I did want to make sure there was enough ease to comfortably sit down. In addition to that, I also took the front and back rise in a bit because there was sooo much ease around my waist and again with these being quilted pants, I just didn’t want or need that much bulk around my mid section. As they are now, there is still a bit of bulk, but, this was as slim as I could make them and still be able to wiggle (and I truly mean wiggle) into them.
I think for future versions I could probably also shorten the rise, as they are supposed to sit below the natural waist and they def go all the way up to mine, but again, I didn’t realize this until the back yoke was already sewn on and top stitched down, so I just left them as is… plus I think they look kind of cute high, with the nice big bow.
The hems I hemmed (har har) and hawed about how short to sew them, because I think they have a really nice side view with them as short as they are, though front on, they could be a smidge longer… why must life be so complicated? Lol. Anyways, I clearly committed to the length I have them now, though they do have double fold back hems so I could lengthen them if I wanted to, and most certainly in a less structured fabric (something more true to the envelope cover I would hem them longer, and have them generally more slouchy all over).
Other than all those fitting changes to accommodate the fabric to the pattern, construction was not that difficult at all. I mostly sewed everything with my basic Cs6000i brother sewing machine (not sponsored), and except at the double fold back hems, when I was going over the side seam and inseam allowance I had no issues. (In those parts I had to help my machine with a little hand cranking). The insides were all finished on my basic 1043D brother serger (again not sponsored). As mentioned above, after realizing early on that pressing didn’t agree with the gold foil on this fabric I skipped all pressing. I did play around with topstitching my seams down, but other than at the yoke, I didn’t like how added top stitching looked, so I didn’t bother which also saved a bunch of time.
One of my favorite parts of these pants are all the little trim details, specifically the bow at the waist, the little trim accents at the pockets and the hem fold up straps. For all of those I used natural colored twill tape and I personally think they make these pants look super lux. The the hem straps in particular are useful because as you can see in these pictures, the pants looks good different ways depending on my shoe choice. With my big boots, they’re too slim to fit over the shaft so I have them rolled up, and with my more low key but still snow appropriate lower profile boots, they look really nice worn over top, IMO. I also had a lot of fun picking out coordinating fabric for the pocket insides and inner waste band. For those I just went digging in my scrap bin. It's the best way to scrap bust pretty fabrics in my opinion.
Annnyways, these were clearly I really fun project for me, that I got to really sink my design teeth into, so I hope you liked reading all about it. They give me 70’s ski resort high fashion vibes in the best way, and I still have a little extra fabric, so maybe I’ll be able to squeeze out a matching cropped cardi/jacket or vest as well….and if I can, you know I’ll be sharing it here, so be on the look out!
Thanks for reading friends!
Kten
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