Suzy pants are easy pants!

Oh the joy of making my own pants! No, I’m not over it yet. It still brings me such satisfaction. These are simple and comfy, but still unique and trendy.

So, I wasn’t ready to dive into another pair of labor-intensive jeans, even though my first ones were highly successful and I am wearing them (too?) often. I thought I would try something a little easier… little did I know how much work these would be.

I had seen a few great iterations of the Suzy pants pattern by Tessuti. I loved True Bias and Sallie Oh’s versions. I had also been in J.Crew recently admiring their relaxed pants. And I saw some like this on Anthropologie.com. BTW, I have a newfound “thing” for J.Crew. I don’t know how that happened, but I’m just loving them right now. So, I PayPalled Tessuti some money (I have no idea how much money since it was in Australian dollars) and the PDF was cut and assembled in a flash.

I was looking forward to an easy construction process, especially after the mountain of work it took to produce my jeans. So I began eagerly. The first thing you do is assemble those pockets. Okay, easy, great instructions, all done. But then, when I got the rest of the pants constructed I realized those pockets stood between me and the loose yet sophisticated fit I had imagined.

See, when I first tried them on they looked like Hammer pants. Not the drop crotch so much, but in the voluminous legs and butt area. Oh dear.

I spent a fair amount of time figuring out how to slim the legs down without ripping those pockets out. In reality, those front pocket pleats and that extra fabric is necessary if you are actually going to put anything in those pockets, like your hands. In the end, I had to take them in three times! It was not easy to get any sort of shape in them. I think I finally achieved an okay fit.

I tried but could not maintain pattern matching on the side seam, though it turned out great across the front and back. This fabric is a light weight something or other (from the remnant table again!) that is not overly drapey. I didn’t want it to cling going down my legs. And it came with a little surprise! Those are people running around my legs! It is kind of hard to see, so I consider it a fun secret that I can choose to let people in on if I want to, or just let them think it is an abstract print.

The ultimate compliment came from my husband. He looked up, shocked, and said “Oh! Those actually turned out good. To be honest, I thought I was going to have to tell you that I would pretend not to know you in public in those pants. But you really tailored them! They are cute now.” I wish all of you could’ve seen the shock and relief on his face. I guess I had him pretty worried when I showed him the original Hammer-like pants. I’m keeping him on his toes.

After finishing these I ran straight over to my pattern and cut it down to reflect my changes, and I’m looking forward to making another pair. I don’t quite know how long this “relaxed pant” trend will last, but I will ride the wave since they are easy to make and so comfortable to wear!