That’s right, you read that correctly. These are made out of knit. Sure, they look like they are denim, but no, this is comfy dark blue French Terry from L’oiseau Fabrics. This fabric has 20% stretch and feels like sweatpants, but looks like jeans.
When I was in the early stages of designing the Lisbeth pants what I had on my mind are comfy jeans with an elastic waistband. I’ve made a few pairs of the pants using various versions of denim, but after many attempts I decided to drop my idea for a elastic waistband jeans pattern for now. While trying to create the look I was going for, I realized that the denim fabric needs to be very specific – light to medium weight with some stretch. It did not make sense to me to have a pattern for fabric that I haven’t come across in the fabric stores yet (at least not in Canada). So I switched gears towards creating a similar look for pants in woven fabrics.
As I was testing my final versions of the pattern, while mid quarantine in winter and wanting to wear only sweatpants, I thought I should try making the Lisbeth pants out of sweatshirting or French Terry. So off I went looking for options and I was so happy when I saw French terry that looks just like denim! My denim elastic waistband jeans dreams were to come true after all!
PATTERN MODIFICATIONS
None. Nada. Nothing. Nothing at all.
My measurements put me straight into size 14 in my patterns. I thought about sizing down, and I have in other sweat pant versions of Lisbeth, but since I wanted to be extra comfortable and the fabric only has 20% stretch, I decided to stick with my size. I am happy I did, the pants fit exactly as I wanted them to!
I chose view B, since I didn’t want to deal with the zipper and knit fabric. A faux zipper fly was all I needed!
SEWING MODIFICATIONS
I switched my needle to a ballpoint needle to make sewing with the knit fabric a breeze. I sewed all the seams using my serger and skipped using my sewing machine where I could. I wanted to give my pants a true jean look, so I switched out the thread for lightweight topstitching thread whenever I was topstitching the seams, and topstitched them using regular topstitching stitch. Not a stretchy seam at all! Other than that, I didn’t make any sewing modifications.
VERDICT
I love these pants so much. I want to make them in every colour! L’oisseau Fabrics still has navy, cobalt, and light blue colourways. I am thinking I need a light coloured pair for the Summer, and maybe a pair of terry shorts that look like jean shorts?…. Well, dang, now I need to buy more fabric.
xoxo,
Anya
P.S. I am wearing one of the views of the Beck T-shirt in these photos. It is my next pattern which will be coming out soon!
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