Railroaded

I think I've wanted a pair of railroad stripe denim pants for nearly as long as I've been making pants. This past weekend, I finally did the thing. Photographed on a railroad track, naturally.


Pattern: Fayma's Nightly Walk Pants
Cost: sponsored

The impetus for these pants came about when an online fabric shop, Modes4U - a company now based in Singapore that sells everything cute and kawaii, reached out to offer some fabric. Even if cutesy prints aren't your thing, I found they had a wide range of fabrics in my style, from Kaufman denim to Art Gallery knits. And, of course, the fabric I have had in and out of my shopping cart for ages - this amazing railroad stripe denim

I typically sew with stretch denim (10% or more) so was a little wary of using something more rigid. However, this denim is only 6 oz and feels very soft. The pants sewed up beautifully and are really easy to wear. They even have a little spandex in them. I actually ended up walking a few miles to take photos (and go on a dog walk) and they felt great. 

To get that comfy faded look, I used the "wrong" side, which has the appearance of a lighter wash. I did an extra wide hem (4") so they would work folded at the cuff as well. And stripes are always fun to play with, so these pants utilize the stripes vertically in the legs, horizontally on the waistband, and diagonally on the back pockets. They have double belt loops in the front and crossed loops in the back. 


For these pants, I also had the opportunity to try out Fayma Patterns, who reached out around the same time to offer me one of their custom patterns. This is my first time using Fayma, and what's interesting about this company is that each pattern is uniquely fitted to you. To get your pattern, you submit 35 (!!) measurements and two photographs (front and side) and they generate something just to your measurements.

I was honestly a bit skeptical about how well this would work. If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I love pants and find them equal parts fun and challenging to fit. The idea that a company could produce something for all my unique fitting challenges was intriguing, but I didn't really think it would work. 

However, I was pleasantly surprised by the results. My muslin was really well balanced, with the side seam hanging straight down my leg. There were no odd wrinkles at the front or back crotch, which is a common problem area for me. And they fit my legs well, from the curves of my hips, thighs, and calves. It does help that this is a less-fitted design, but really it hung very nicely. 

The one problem area, which you can see on the models on their website, is that the crotch is drafted to be a bit low. This probably makes the pattern fit on a wider range of bodies, but it's lower than it should be. I raised mine at least an inch, but probably need to fiddle with it a bit more. So it doesn't hang as nicely there on me as it should. For my final version, I also ended up reducing the wearing ease and tapering the legs somewhat, but those are more about my personal preference for the pants I wanted to make rather than fit issues. Next time I will probably also lower the rise, as these sit at my actual waist - something few patterns usually do as I'm really long-waisted! I really am quite happy with how these fit right out of the printer and definitely plan to use this pattern again. 


All the kids tell me that skinny jeans are out, so I hope this looser style will serve me well. And damn are they comfy. 

1 comment:

  1. those look great and interesting to hear about this pattern company. Intriguing! also great photos, your move has given you a lot of great setting.

    ReplyDelete

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