It's plum week here in my little space on the interwebs! Plum, prune, wine... I am really feeling all of these fruity red/purples. So plum week it is. Last week I had a wine dress, today I've got plum pants, and later this week, a plum top. I also received plums as part of my farm share this week (made this magic apple plum cobbler from them), so clearly this was meant to be, right?
The pants! After my first pair of True Bias Lander pants, I knew there would be another, and soon... I had a few tweaks to make regarding size, but was pretty enamored with the pattern!
Enter Organic Cotton Plus... they offered to send me some fabric to review, and, given my previous experiences with them (see Jasper and Riley, both wardrobe winners for me), I jumped on it. Organic Cotton Plus provided me this fabric for free, but all of my opinions are my own.
Conveniently, Organic Cotton Plus has a line of cotton twill that is the same weight (7 oz/square yard) that Kelli at True Bias recommends for the Lander pattern (she used this weight in her gorgeous sample photos)! Plus, the twill is Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS)-certified, which means it's certified to be produced in a manner that's environmentally and socially responsible. Yes.
While the twill comes in a pretty wide variety of colors, the plum color immediately jumped out at me. This fabric is great! It's not too heavy, not too light; definitely the perfect weight for the Lander pant. The color is vibrant and rich, and I can feel good about the fabric's origins.
After finding my first (tester) pair of Landers to be a bit big all around, I decided to size down to a 16. Luckily, for the final pattern, Kelli provides a 1" seam allowance on the outer leg seam so that you can tweak the fit. I ended up giving myself a bit more room through the hip/lower belly area, but sticking with the 16 elsewhere. Perhaps I should have done a legitimate full abdomen adjustment of some sort, but this cheater side seam adjustment worked out ok, too.
I went with the suggested hem allowance (I may be close to 5'8", but I have the legs of a 5'5" woman), which seems better than my slightly-too-long first pair of Landers. Does it look right, though? Or too short? I can't decide what the best length should be... help me, stylish internet friends.
Other construction details: I skipped the belt loops this time, because I'll never use them. I lined the front pockets with rayon challis scraps from my Suki robe. I also decided to add a little strip of interfacing to the top of the back pockets to prevent them from stretching out. For the corners of the back pockets I topstitched little triangles for extra security, like you do on a shirt's front pocket. The jeans buttons are from Joann Fabrics; I liked the dark color.
I think the Lander pant fits in well in my handmade wardrobe. Here I paired it with a long sleeved t-shirt (not handmade... turns out long sleeved t-shirts are a hole in my me-made closet) and my new Estelle jacket/cardigan thing. I tried it on with a few other things, too, and found it looked good with my Appleton top, Harrison shirts and several other tops. Hooray!
I'm really happy with these pants! The color is just gorgeous and I think they're pretty cute. I'd be curious to try a bottomweight with a hint of stretch if I make the Lander pants again. Organic Cotton Plus has a denim-like stretch twill that's slightly heavier than their non-stretch twill. Do you think it would work?