Jalie 3676 – Secret, Ninja Pajamas!

I had to make these pants next because they look so SPRING to me. I’m really into spring right now because we are in the midst of it and there is nothing more exciting to a light-deprived Alaskan than SPRING! I made my Vanessa pants a little different than the original pattern. I wanted mine to look more like slacks.

 

Mine are not cuffed and I cut two inches off and made a one inch hem. These are just a bit cropped which is what I was looking for. My legs are a bit on the short side for a person with a 5’5” frame. I have extra length in my torso which means I have less in my legs. (Dammit.) When I make them with the cuffs, which I will, I’ll probably fold out an inch below the knee so I keep the tapered leg. I think the leg is a little wide here and that would have been avoided if I had folded out an inch or two at the knee.

 

I used a very light weight, stretchy, “denim”. I am not sure that is the right word to even describe this fabric. They are so stretchy and lightweight. Because of the stretchiness and my unfamiliarness with my machine, I stretched the darts out a bit. I always do darts by shortened the stitch until I reach the point of the dart. Well, I was trying to do it on my new machine and ended up with .5 length stitches and that, combined with my super stretchy fabric, made the points of the darts stretched out. You can barely see the issue here.

 

It’s funny, but I couldn’t find a picture with my hands out of my pockets.

 

With tucked in t-shirt (a Jalie t-shirt from a long time ago!).

 

Here you can see th dart problem more. The fit in the butt would be about perfect except for the pesky darts that are sticking out! Also, I always seem to have extra fabric behind my thighs. I’m sure there is some fish-eye-octopus-hairy-dog dart I can use to alter it to make it fit better. I have this issue across all pattern companies and pants types. People before have said it’s because the front of my legs are muscular. Someday I will figure it out. 

 

This looks gray, but these are definitely dark blue.

 

I changed my waistband slightly too. Instead of putting the drawstring all the way around the waistband, I just put it from grommet hole to grommet hole. I didn’t have much twill tape that was the same color and I really wanted to use it. Also, the elastic in the waistband keeps them snug around the waist.

 

I did a little photoshop magic and I think they would have looked more like this if I had folded the length out at the knee. I will be making these again using a rayon challis and the leg cuffs! They are so comfortable! This will be like wearing secret pajamas to work!