Two years ago, I bought some purple Polartec stretch sweatshirt fleece from Surge Fabrics and liked it so much that I subsequently bought three yards each of charcoal, denim blue, and avocado Polartec sweatshirt fleece when Califabrics got some designer deadstock in. The fabric is very soft and cozy on the inside, with a smooth finish on the outside that resists pilling and abrasion. The fabric has a lot of stretch, which adds to the comfort and makes it suitable for a lot of knit patterns. When the fabric arrived, I was disappointed that the denim blue was more green than blue and the avocado was the shade of green that avocados eventually turn when they’re a bit past their prime, or, more charitably, the color of green olives. I made a Pattern Emporium Sweet Cheeks sweatshirt from the purple fleece and a pair of PE Urban Tapered Pants from the charcoal fleece. I love them both: they are cozy, warm, and comfortable. Later, I made a pocket hood scarf from most of the rest of the purple fleece (with the fluffy side on the outside). I had planned to make some coordinating loungewear out of the denim blue and rotten avocado, but every time I looked at these fabrics, I was disappointed that they weren’t the colors I was expecting. But alas, it is cold outside this week (actually for the rest of the month), and I really want some cozy loungewear, so I decided that I would just accept that the denim blue was actually dark teal or maybe spruce, and go ahead and make a lounge set. I auditioned several threads to coordinate with the spruce, and found my blue threads were all terrible matches, so I settled on a green thread. So spruce it is!

Once I accepted that I had 3 yards of spruce fleece to work with, I decided that it is actually a lovely color and I was excited to figure out which patterns to use to make my lounge set. I started with the pants and in my next post I’ll write about the top.

I chose the Pattern Emporium Urban wideleg pants pattern, which I have made many times before, in purple, black, grey, and magenta ponte. These are easy to sew and I love the back darts. I’ve tweaked the pattern in a bunch of different ways, but have settled on the size AU 10 with a low waist (which is more of a high-waist on me) with the waist graded in and the waistband adjusted to be a contoured waistband with 3/8-inch elastic sewn in. I also like to extend the crotch seam a tad (but forgot to do it this time). I use the jeans-style pockets but raise the pocket openings and cut them straight instead of curved. I also cut them 1.5 inches shorter than the pattern and this time I gave them a 1.75-inch hem.

The Urban pants pattern actually works great with this fluffy stretch fleece fabric. The only bit that didn’t work so well was the pockets. The jeans pockets are folded to form a pocket bag, so you end up with three layers (two pocket layers and a pants layer). That was too bulky with this fluffy fabric. I should have used one of the pocket styles in which you sew one layer of pocket either inside or outside the pants leg. Rather than take them apart, I top-stitched the pockets down after assembling the pants, using two rows of very narrow zigzags a quarter-inch apart (1.8 length, 1.1 width on my Bernina). It would have been much easier to do this with only 2 layers instead of 3 and to sew it down before assembling the pants, but it worked out ok and I think it looks just like the pockets I’ve seen on pants being sold at retailers. My Triumph in cover stitch mode could also have done the topstitching and = would probably have been an even cleaner look, but it would have been difficult to do after the pants were assembled and would have required rethreading and converting the Triumph to cover stitch mode.

I’m very happy with how these pants came out, the color is great, and they are super cozy and warm! Now, on to the top….