Sewing Confrontations

My friend Jessica over at Quilty Habit contacted me a few weeks ago about a new series she's putting together:

The series is called "Sewing Confrontations" and she's asking a number of other bloggy friends this November to man up (or woman up, or trans up, as the case may be) and force ourselves to work on some sewing issue that we have been struggling with or avoiding.  Since my machines have been gathering dust on their shiny avocado-and-lemon-smoke exteriors, I thought this might be a good way to get back into things.  After all, it's football season and it's soon going to be too cold to even run errands.

I thought hard about something I have been neglecting but thought I could realistically accomplish in a month.  I'm not going to successfully free-motion the bed quilt I made for myself last winter by the end of November.  This I know is simply not happening. I've been putting off quilting it at all for a year.  I mean, it took me an hour last night to quilt straight lines on a POTHOLDER.  Yeah.

But you know what is bothering me and I might be motivated to do?  Pants.  Like many women, I struggle mightily to consistently find pants that fit worth a toss.  And once I do seem to find a brand and style I like, THEY CHANGE THEM!  Sometimes the entire style is revamped (so much for the J. Crew Favorite Fits that got me through grad school--were they only my favorite??)  sometimes they decide to get cheap cute with the fabric (*cough*GAPbrands*cough*) and they are no longer worth the money. (jump coming here!)



So my dears, my challenge is to try to sew a pair of pants that fits decently.  I've sewed pants before with ok results, but I want to try a somewhat more advanced pattern.  Most of the patterns from the Big Four do not appeal to me at all, and some of the BurdaStyle magazine patterns I get are kinda ridiculous.  Fortunately, two new patterns have recently come out that look like contenders:

1) Sewaholic Thurlow

I've not yet sewn any of these, but word on the street is that Sewaholic patterns are designed for pear shaped women.  I'm not quite a standard pear--I've got a narrow torso but a very large bust--but the general pear-pants-fitting-issue I have:  wide hips and thighs, small waist.  These are fitted in the hip and thigh and flared below the knee.  They have slash pockets in front and welt pockets in back, and a nice long inseam.

2) Colette Juniper

These are more of a true wide-leg pant.  They also have slash pockets and a nice wide waistband.  There's something very Seventies about them (that is not a bad thing).  Not sure what the finished inseam is.  I think these are probably easier to sew. 

So sometime in the next week, I'll decide which of these I want to try, and probably start mocking them up.  In the meantime, please click the button on the sidebar and visit the other participants in the series!