Friday, June 14, 2019

Testing, testing: Sew House Seven Free Range Slacks

Ooooh, Sew House Seven has released a new pattern!



These are the Free Range Slacks, and I am pretty excited about them. I basically want to live in elastic waist linen pants all summer...


The Free Range Slacks are a stylish, elastic high waist pant designed with linen in mind. There is a tapered leg version and a straight, cropped version. Both have topstitched side panels (difficult to see in my photos) and topstitched front pockets. There is an optional back pocket, too. 


As with all of Peggy's patterns, the instructions are extremely detailed and provide options for super neat finishes like flat-felled seams and french seams, which are particularly useful if you want to roll up the leg of your tapered Free Range Slacks.


Ok, so let's talk about this pair: the Free Range Slacks I am wearing is from the first round of testing. Some tweaks have been made since then to raise the back rise and fix some of the mild bum wrinkling you see there. Also, I used 2" elastic for my waistband here, but the final pattern uses 1.5". Fairly similar otherwise, I think!


This is obviously the straight leg version. I cut a size 16, which worked out perfectly. I might shorten them ever so slightly, as they're in that weird not-quite-cropped, not-quite-full-length place on me. This happens to me a lot; I'm fairly tall, but have short legs, I think!


The fabric is Brussels Washer linen/rayon blend in red rock I bought from the Imagine Gnats shop. This fabric is the perfect substrate for the Free Range Slacks pattern- the texture of linen and the drape of rayon. Color-wise the fabric is looking a bit more creamsicle in color in my photos, but I'd say it's slightly more rusty in real life. 


I used white thread for topstitching, which looks cool in real life, but is a little bit difficult to see in photos, as I mentioned. 


I paired my Free Range Slacks with my Seamwork Bo, also made in Brussels Washer linen. Outfit dreams, here folks. I think I was trying to show off the shape of the Bo here with this Righteous Babe pose... I dunno, don't ask.


So, a final statement: I'm not only the Free Range Slacks Fan Club president, but I'm also a client

I'm so looking forward to making another pair... now how can I get my hands on that acid green linen Peggy used for the pattern sample?!