White Persephone Pants – yes or no?

White pants. Dream or doom? I love white pants on others and have always dreamt of having a pair. One step closer to my dream style and wardrobe. But how long will they remain white? Is this just a pipe dream?

Who knows, but I finished them and I am happy with how they look and fit. I made my pants! These are not the first pants I made (I already blogged about first Persephone’s here) but when you get used to making something and it starts being the norm you forget to celebrate it and stepping back to think – I made these freaking pants! Not many people can say that and I always love how well I know my clothes – from materials, construction, the thread I used, steps I did to get to the finish line and how each and every garment has an origin story I was part of from start to finish. Does that not make it even more special? I think it does and I wanted to tell that to myself today.

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So, white pants. A good idea? No idea, but let’s try it. I will probably not ever feel 100% secure sitting in them just for the phobia I will sit on something and get them dirty, even if I am in a totally safe indoor environment. But I am pushing myself to do what I want and live my life how I want and if one small step of wearing white pants will get me there than that one small step in white pants will be a big step in getting my butt where I want it to be 😀

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Sewing has opened a new world to me, not only in craft and knowledge I did not have before but in freeing my mind and allowing me to wear colour first and now white. I never wore either in my teenage years. It was too visible and too out there for me. But I learned that wearing the garments I create makes me feel more confident. And I like that. So white pants it is. I just hope I won’t be too conscious of being in white pants, although I understand some settling in will have to happen in the beginning.

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Pattern and Construction

Now for the technical part of it all. The pattern is the Persephone Pants by Anna Allen Clothing. I already used this pattern before and this is my 5th pair, so I was confident in constructing them. The only difference this time was that I used stretch denim. This pattern is drafted for non-stretch fabrics, so using stretch meant I had to think about what size to make it in. I made my earlier pants in size 2 in the waist and grading to 4 in the hips, although this changed a bit with each pair I made. Here I knew I would have some gapping or just bad fit if I went with the same size so I decided to construct them in the smallest size available (this meant going one size down in waist and two in the hip). In the end, this did end up being a bit too tight so I made the seam allowance smaller in the inner leg seam by 0.5 cm. This gave me more room and now they are tight but comfortable.

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The construction of this pattern is straightforward and it was the first pants pattern I ever made that was successful. So if you are reading this and are thinking of making a pair for the first time – go for it. There is nothing to lose but a few hours that will teach you a lot in the long run. The pattern instructions are great and with illustrations, you can make these pants with no problem. If  I did it so can you.

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The fabric is the 10oz Cone Mills S-gene stretch denim in white from Threadbare Fabrics my sister got me when she was in the US a while ago. It is a great fabric but be ready it will show every bump (but also almost every pair of underwear in your wardrobe). I have to see how to wear these bad boys or I have to get an invisible pair of underwear – do these exist? It is not really see-through but it is a white fabric after all. I was inspired by Charlie and Beck to use this fabric and basically copied them all the way. Thank you, ladies, for all the inspiration!

 

And one last thing I adore about these is I got to sneak some colour in after all – with buttons hidden in the fly! They are all the same size as required in the pattern but they are all different colors and were left all alone in my button stash. So it was ideal to use them in this project and do a bit of stash busting – my favorite activity after sewing!

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Overall I am in love with these pants and happy I pushed my self forward with getting a more stand out piece into my wardrobe. I am now off to see how long I can go without getting coffee, food or mud on them. Wish me luck!

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Thank you for reading!

Ana

 

 

A symphony of a dream outfit with Persephone pants – pattern by Anna Allen Clothing

I made a dream outfit which makes me smile like a dork. Persephone pants, Burda style magazine shirt and Gaia coat. I already blogged about the coat here, so I will not write much about it now, accept that I love it more than I love chocolate.

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Napravila sam outfit iz snova zbog kojeg se cerim kao bedak. Persephone hlače, Burda košulja i Gaia kaput. O kaputu sam već pisala ovdje, pa sada neću pisati o njemu osim što ću napomenuti da ga volim više od čokolade.

The perfect outfit/ savršeni outfit

I was eyeing the Persephone pants pattern by Anna Allen for a long time now but kept away from purchasing it. I have few other pants patterns similar to it in my stash already, so didn’t think I really needed this one. But I had terrible luck with all these other patterns and could not fit any of them. I was already close to crying. So I thought this one might be my light at the end of the tunnel since everyone was praising about it over on Instagram. So I did, I bought it and I am never going back. The fit is spot on and I am finally releasing all the frustration from other failed attempts of fitting pants. I made two muslins and decided the fit is perfect with size 2 at the waist graded to size 4 at hips. I also took the back seam in by 0.5 cm in because there was a bit of access fabric. I made the real thing out of 8oz denim from Minerva crafts. The denim tends to give with wear so maybe for my next denim pair I will size down to size 2 in hips and see how that woks. They fit fine but are a bit baggy after few wears. Nothing that would stop me from wearing them, just something that will help me make the second version better.

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Gledala sam kroj za Persephone hlače od Anna Allen dugo vremena, ali sam se suzdržavala od kupovine. Imam već nekoliko sličnih krojeva, pa nisam mislila da ne trebam i ovaj kroj. Ali sam s drugim krojevima imala loše iskustvo s podešavanjem tako da niti jedan kroj nije zaživio u formi hlača. Već sam bila na rubu suza. I onda sam pomislila da bi možda ovaj kroj mogao biti svijetlost na kraju tunela, obzirom da ga svi hvale na Instagramu. I jesam, kupila sam ga i više se neću vraćati nazad. Pristaju mi kao salivene i napokon otpuštam frustraciju koju sam nakupila iz svih promašaja s drugim krojevima. Napravila sam dvije testne verzije i vidjela da mi paše veličina 2 u struku prošireno na veličinu 4 u kukovima. Dodatno sam unjela stražnji šav za 0.5 cm da se riješim viška tkanine u tom području. Hlače sam napravila u 8oz traperu iz Minerva crafts dućana. Traper se širi s nošenjem pa možda za idući par ostanem u veličini 2 i u kukovima. I ovako dobro pristaju samo se s nošenjem malo razvuku. Ništa što bi me spriječilo da ih nosim, ali nešto što će mi pomoći kod izrade idućeg para da budu još bolje.

I also used a memade clay button / iskoristila sam i svoj keramički gumb

The reason I am pointing at the button above is because it is memade out of clay and I blogged about that process here.

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Razlog zašto pokazujem na gumb je taj što sam i njega napravila od keramike, a o tome sam ranije pisala ovdje.

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To be open and not talk about successes only, I did make a mistake while sewing. I was so thrilled on finishing them and when I had one last button to go at the waist I went in and sewed the buttonhole only to realise I did in on the wrong side of the waist (part of waist where the button goes). Thankfully, this mistake did not mean I had too many reparations to do, or better yet, any at all (good thing is I did not cut into the buttonhole yet!). I only put the button over it and sewed a new buttonhole on the top side of the waistband. This means that now if you look closely, like in the picture bellow, you can see part of that useless buttonhole, but as it would be weird for anyone to look that closely there, I think I am fine.

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Da budem skroz iskrena i ne pišem samo o uspjesima, na hlačama sam napravila jednu vidljivu grešku. Bila sam toliko uzbuđena da ih dovršim i kada sam bila na zadnjem gumbu sašila sam rupu za gumb i shvatila da sam ju uspjela našiti na krivoj strani pojasa (donji dio pojasa na koji ide gumb).  Srećom nisam već zarezala u rupu pa nisam trebala ništa prepravljati, već sam samo našila gumb preko toga. Rupu za gumb sam našila na drugu stranu pojasa i ta da. Kad se bolje pogleda vidi se beskorisna rupa za gumbe s donje strane pojasa (na slici dolje), ali kako nitko normalan neće s pretjeranom pozornošću gledati u taj predio hlača mislim da sam ok.

or maybe you cannot see it in this picture after all 🙂 / ili ipak ne možete vidjeti tu grešku ni na ovoj slici 🙂

The Burda style shirt is from magazine issue 4/2018. The pattern is actually a jumpsuit, but I hacked it into a shirt. The jumpsuit looks perfect though, so I might do that one as well at one point. The pattern has many lovely details and when I saw Vesna of @kelerabeus make the jumpsuit I was determined to make it as well. Fabric restrictions made me stick to the shirt only, but I love it. The pattern has double sleeve action which caught my eye straight away. I scratched my head a lot with this one (as I always do with Burda), so Vesna was so great to help and send me her version of Serbian instructions, because the German ones were not cutting it. Thank you Vesna!

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Košulja je iz Burda časopisa broj 4/2018. Originalno je to kroj za kombinezon, ali sam ga izradila kao košulju. Kombinezon je odličan, pa u nekom trenutku možda i njega napravim. Kroj ima odlične detalje i kada sam vidjela Vesnin (@kelerabeus) kombinezon znala sam da ga i ja želim. Kako sam bila ograničena s količinom materijala napravila sam košulju, ali sam prezadovoljna. Kroj ima dupli rukav koji me odmah privukao. Ovaj kroj me dosta izazvao s uputama (kao i svaki drugi Burdin kroj), ali je Vesna super i poslala mi je srpsku verziju uputa, pošto mi njemačke upute jednostavno nisu bile od nikakve koristi. Hvala Vesna!

The fabric I used is a viscose with small polka dots I got at a local shop. It is a great option for the double sleeve. It pairs well with jeans and it was meant to be worn with denim Persephone pants, at last in my opinion. What do you think?

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Tkanina je viskoza sa sitnim točkicama, a nabavila sam ju u lokalnom dućanu. Viskoza je odlična opcija za ovaj dupli rukav. Super je u kombinaciji s trapericama i stvorena je za Persephone hlače, barem po mojem mišljenju. Što vi mislite?

Thank you for reading!

Hvala na čitanju!

Ana