When my Aunt Nancy asked me whether I could replicate her well-loved and patched light-weight yoga pants that she has been unable to replace, I told her I would give it a try. I borrowed the pants from her and observed their fabric and construction. According to the tags, they were “Alternative Earth” brand pants, a brand that seems to have gone out of business. They were size XL and made from a dark charcoal light-weight blend of 50% polyester, 38% cotton,12% rayon knit, similar to a triblend tshirt. The pants had no side seam and thus were constructed from just four pattern pieces: a left and right leg piece, a waistband tube, and a drawstring. They are super simple, not fancy: thus I’m calling them the Not-so-fancy Nancy Pants.

I decided to make a digital pattern for the pants by tracing them using my ipad and projector. I setup a blank document in Affinity Designer, drew a square, and calibrated the zoom setting so the projected square matched the size in the document. Then I folded the pants and put the pants on my cutting table and drew a series of rectangles, stretching them so their projections covered the pant leg and crotch. Once the rectangles were situated, I used the pen tool on my ipad to trace the outline of the folded pants. If the pants’ legs were symmetrical, I would have been able to make a mirror image copy and connect the front and back. However, I realized that the front rise was quite a bit lower than the back rise. Thus, I spent some time rearranging the pants and tracing until I had the whole crotch area drawn correctly. This would have been much easier if I had taken the pants apart, but I enjoyed the challenge of my non-destructive approach. Another option that might have been fun would have been the painter’s tape method, which I’ve heard about but never tried.

Once I got the pants leg traced, I added a quarter-inch seam allowance and 1-inch hem. I measured the waistband and drawstring and drew the corresponding rectangles.

Then I cut out the pants from black 190GSM 95% modal / 5% spandex knit fabric. This is a super soft, lightweight, and breathable fabric with a lot of stretch. I wouldn’t use it for anything with pockets, as it is too stretchy to support a pocket well, but the Not-so-fancy Nancy pants do not have pockets.

The pants were very quick to sew together. I studied the original pants to determine the correct sewing order. I serged the left and right legs together at the front and back crotch seams. Then I aligned the front and back crotch seams, right sides together, folding the legs in half vertically, and clipped the inseams together. I surged up one leg and down the other.

I cut two small notches in the center of the waistband for the drawstring. As this fabric doesn’t unravel, I didn’t bother reinforcing these holes. Then I joined the short ends of the waistband piece to form a loop and folded it in half horizontally. (The original pants had a continuous waistband that must have been cut from a fabric tube, so it doesn’t have a back seam — this is the main difference between my pattern and the original). I clipped the waistband to the top of the pants and serged it all together.

I folded the drawstring piece in half vertically, wrong sides together and serged. Then, I used a loop turner to turn the drawstring right-side out. I threaded the drawstring through one of the holes in the waistband, around the band, and out the other side. I knotted the ends of the drawstring. Finally, I turned up the bottom of the legs one-inch and hemmed them with a shallow zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine.

Here you can see a side-by-side comparison of the old and new pants modeled by yours truly. The top row is the old pants, and the bottom row is the new pants. Note that the pants are too, because my Aunt Nancy is actually several inches taller than me, but you can still get the idea. The modal fabric I used for the new pants is darker, stretchier, and fits closer to the body, but otherwise is a pretty good dupe.

After I finished the pants, I packed the new pants and the originals up and mailed them to Aunt Nancy. A few days later, she sent me these photos and asked for a second pair. They are soft and comfy and a perfect fit.

I was intrigued by the bold V-neck and simplicity of the Sonia Estep Designs Lena bold v-neck dolman top when I saw it in my Facebook sewing feed, so I decided to purchase it and give it a try. This is my first pattern from SED. From the measurements, it looked like size 4 would fit me but would be tunic length on me, so I shortened the pattern by 4 inches (I just took it off the bottom).

It was very fast to cut out the three pattern pieces (front, back, and neck band) from the black modal spandex fabric that I bought on sale from Mily Mae. I thought I could sew the whole top in an hour, but sadly the v-neck construction was non-trivial with my stretchy and slippery modal spandex. I’m not entirely sure why, but I think I spent almost 2 hours on the v-neck and about an hour on the rest. And even after all that effort, the point of the V is slightly off and the shirt doesn’t lie as smoothly as I would like where it meets the neck band (but top-stitching with a shallow zigzag stitch helped smooth it out somewhat). Next time, I would try zigzagging along the long edge of the neckband to hold the two layers together before trying to assemble the neckband. The sleeve hems were also more difficult than anticipated and might have benefited from pre-hemming before sewing the side seams. I like the drape of the modal spandex and it is very comfy to wear.

I’m glad I shortened the hem. This is a good length for me to wear tucked in or out, and it looks great with my new tweed pants!

I’m enjoying wearing my tweed bouclé knit jacket and dress, and since I still had more of the fabulous blue/black tweed bouclé knit, I decided to make a pair of wide-leg pants to go with the jacket. I used the Pattern Emporium Walk Boldly Pants pattern with a modified yoga waistband from Pattern Emporium Urban Pants. The Walk Boldly pattern really shines with more structured knit fabric that shows off the wide legs, and the Urban pants yoga waistband is a great substitute for the Walk Boldly elastic waist. I made these pants in my usual size AU 10 with my usual modifications. I used the lower waist, tapered the waist in a bit, lengthened the front crotch, contoured the yoga waistband and split it into separate inner and outer pieces, made the inner piece from a heavy athletic knit, and sewed half-inch elastic into the top of the waistband seam between the layers. I used the jeans pockets but sewed the pocket openings on a straight diagonal. And I added back patch pockets to play up the Channel vibe of the outfit.

Cutting the tweed was a bit of a challenge. I knew I wanted the vertical lines in the fabric to align vertically with the grain. I also attempted some plaid matching horizontally, but eventually gave up as the knit fabric was too fiddly for that. Fortunately, the plaid pattern is fairly subtle and so the lack of plaid matching is not obvious.

Now I have a dress, jacket, and pants in the tweed bouclé knit, and I still have a little bit more than a yard left. Perhaps I need a skirt? A sleeveless top? Or maybe I’ll use it to make something for someone else?

After I finished the pants, I decided I needed a turquoise blue scoop-neck top to go with the pants. I had just barely enough turquoise double-brushed poly left over from another project in my stash. I tetrised my adjusted size 4p Sinclair Bondi classic fitted t-shirt pattern to fit the little fabric I had with short sleeves and a cropped length — it was as long as fit the piece of fabric I had, but coincidentally, at 3-inches above hip length, also the perfect length to wear under the jacket untucked. It is a great length on me with high-waisted pants, but may show a smidge of midriff when worn with lower-riding pants. I made my usual broad and sloped shoulder adjustments and tried a new, slightly lower version of my screwp neck, this one made from the size 00 wide scoop. The DBP fabric is soft and stretchy, but also a little bit clingy to my rib cage, making me consider sizing up next time I sew a top with DBP.