Fancy Pants?

When I was in London in May I picked up a Flo-Jo's Knicker Making Kit from Liberty. I've never made pants before, but I thought it might be fun. Plus one of my sewing resolutions for the year is to make more practical things, and they don't come more practical than pants. The kit contains all pattern, fabric and notions (minus thread) needed to make a pair of fancy pants. My set was red polka dot cotton, with white frilly ribbon trim for a cute finish.

How did the project go? Well when I went to cut the fabric the small piece of stetch fabric for the lining was smaller than the pattern piece. Not much smaller, but smaller. I  probably would have just put this down to bad luck in my pack, if there hadn't been some other issues, which meant this niggled me a bit more than it would if it had all be smooth sewing.

The instructions - well I've got a bit of sewing experience under my belt, and I had trouble with them. I didn't find them easy to follow. I got totally confused over the instructions to sew the pieces together, so I just gave up on them and decided to work it out myself. Also, I think some instructions/steps might have been left out. The instructions did give tips on how to sew with elastic, but didn't give any guidence on how to work out how much elastic you would need on each edge. It's a shame because its quite a fun little project, and would be good for beginners, but I think they might struggle with the instructions. 

Having percervered with the pants, I'm quite please with the result. I replaced the ribbon bow with a button from my stash, and I do like the little fancy pants sew in label (which I put on the back). I can also confirm (although I'm not providing photographic evidence) that I have worn the pants, and that they are very comfortable.

Would I make more pants? I think so, and I would probably use the pattern again, but will certainly be giving the instructions a miss. I think I will also try a pattern using some jersey to see how that works, maybe So Zoe's pattern.