Sew Frosting: Wide legged pants and a lace top

It’s been a few years since I’ve sewn myself an outfit specifically for Christmas, but this year I was really inspired! In fact, even last year, I wanted to wear some wide legged black pants, but I just couldn’t find what I was looking for. This year, again, I went looking for the same style of pants and while I did try on a couple pair at Target, they just didn’t fit me right, so I set out to make some.

This is what brought on my determination to make pants sewing my goal for this next year! I have some specific fitting issues that make buying pants harder than it needs to be. If I can learn to make them to fit me correctly, I think it will change my fashion life.

I decided on Simplicity 8956, since it’s similar to what I had tried on at the store, and bought some black poly faille at Hobby Lobby. The fabric is nice, it has no stretch at all, it’s lightweight, but not delicate, and totally opaque. I generally prefer natural fibers for clothes, but I also don’t like how linens and rayons stretch out when wearing pants made from them, so I’m open to experimenting with other fabrics for pants.

I took my time making a muslin and already, just from fitting this first pair of pants, I learned so much about my body! Most eye opening was the fact that while I always thought I was just short waisted, and it’s true that I’m short from bust to waist, I’m quite long from waist to crotch. This discovery was an aha moment. It explains why pants rarely fit me and why rompers have always looked ridiculous on me.

After my alterations, I love how the pants turned out! There are a few further adjustments I’ll make on my next pair, but these are pretty great and I’m excited to wear them to church this weekend for our Christmas service.

On to this lace top! I bought this beautiful pink lace at Hobby Lobby when it went on sale and used the brand new Simplicity 9045. With wide pants, though, I wanted a shorter top, so I cropped it and straightened the hem in order to use the pretty scalloped edge. I also managed to sew the scallops onto the sleeve hems and I really love how this top turned out.

To sew with the lace, I double stitched and trimmed my seams instead of serging to finish them, and rather than using the facing pieces, I bound the neckline and hand stitched it to the inside. I didn’t want visible stitching because the texture of the lace causes some wonky top stitching and tends to look sloppy. Since I used the scalloped trim for the sleeves and hem, I didn’t have any visible stitching there either, so it looks very professionally finished.

This is a really great basic pattern, it’s a favorite style of mine and now that I’ve made the full bust adjustment to the pattern pieces, I can easily sew up a few more of these. I bought some solid black rayon at my thrift store yesterday intending to make a basic black woven top using this pattern.

While this outfit isn’t traditionally “Christmasy”, I think it works for not only our Christmas service, but other nice occasions and even Easter. Plus, the pieces mix and match with many other items in my wardrobe, so I feels good knowing I’ll get a lot of wear out of these pieces that I spent some much time on.

Click here or on the photo below to read about the other pants patterns I’m going to try in the new year!