{"id":3749,"date":"2026-09-13T16:58:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T20:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/?p=3749"},"modified":"2026-09-13T17:07:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T21:07:33","slug":"gigi-pants-with-purple-bush-clover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/2026\/09\/13\/gigi-pants-with-purple-bush-clover\/","title":{"rendered":"Gigi pants with purple bush clover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sinclair Gigi woven easy fitting wide leg pants<\/a> size 6R ankle length in grey marl Brussels Washer yarn-dyed 55% linen\/45% rayon, 2-inch hem.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I’ve been avoiding sewing with linen due to my aversion to ironing, and I’ve been avoiding sewing pants with a flat front and an elastic back due to a bad experience with the Closet Core Pietra pants<\/a> pattern three years ago. Pietra is a fine pattern, but I was not happy with the way the elastic back turned out, and I found it didn’t offer enough compression to compensate for the flat front and my pants kept slipping down. (In a Clost Core blog post, it was mentioned that for some people a side zipper was going to work better.) Slipping waistbands are an ongoing problem for me due to a combination of my narrow waist relative to my hips and the fact that I load my pants pockets. For that reason, I didn’t grab the Sinclair Gigi<\/a> pattern right away when it came out. Gigi also features hidden inseam pockets, which often don’t work well for me. But I was impressed with the great Gigi makes that had smooth pockets and very flattering front waistbands that made these pull-on woven pants look like “real” trousers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided to try the grey marl Brussels Washer yarn dyed 55% linen\/45% rayon blend <\/a>from Surge fabrics, which was advertised as needing less ironing that 100% linen. I washed the fabric when I got it and it came out of the dryer pretty smooth. I only gave it a few touch-ups before cutting into it. I cut a size 6R rather than my usual petite size because I wanted the higher rise of the regular cut. I used the ankle length, which is the same length as the full-length petite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pattern was mostly pretty easy to sew. The nice pockets were not that difficult to sew, and the technique used in this pattern avoids some of the pocket alignment problems I’ve had with other side-seam pockets. And they do lie flat and look great on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I did spot a few errors in the pattern tutorial, where the instructions in the text did not match what was shown in the diagrams. I went with the diagrams and ignored the faulty instructions. I followed the advice to baste the elastic into the back waistband and try the pants on. I ended up shortening the elastic by about 2 inches to get a tight enough fit. I think I could have gone even tighter but the elastic was getting difficult to work with when pulled that tight — the same problem I had with the Pietra pants. I sewed a 2-inch hem, folded .5 inch and then 1.5 inch and top-stitched close to the fold with my edge foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The front of these pants look very nice and they stay up ok, especially if I tuck a shirt in. I don’t love the elastic back waist, but they’re not terrible. I might go with the half tuck in front and keep the back covered. The back waistband will also not show if I wear a cardigan or jacket. I like the pleat detail in the front, which adds to the polished, trouser vibe and also provides more fullness in the front. Now I’m tempted to try adding pleats to another non-pleated pattern. And I’m also pretty happy with the linen\/rayon fabric. It has both some structure and drape, is somewhat soft (but has a coarse texture) and is breathable, and hopefully won’t wrinkle much (but we’ll see). I could see making more of these pants, despite my concerns about the back, but will probably also keep making pants with elastic that goes all the way around and knit pants, which avoid this problem completely. And one of these days I’ll sew some real trousers with an actual zipper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I modeled my Gigi pants with a Sinclair Loop drop-shoulder knit top in marsala LiKnit<\/a>, posing in my driveway in front of “Bad Haircut,” our beloved Purple Bush Clover (Lespedeza thunbergii). We cut him back in the winter and he grows like a maniac all summer. One summer I got out my loppers to trim him back before he could take over the entire bed and he ended up looking like a kid who had decided to cut his own hair. We called him Bad Haircut after that, although my pruning skills have improved. As we were taking photos today, I noticed that the pollinators were enjoying Bad Haircut too, so after we were done, I grabbed the camera and took some more photos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I also spotted a chipmunk snacking on the cracked cherry tomatoes we left on the garden wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sinclair Gigi woven easy fitting wide leg pants size 6R ankle length in grey marl Brussels Washer yarn-dyed 55% linen\/45% rayon, 2-inch hem. I’ve been avoiding sewing with linen due to my aversion to ironing, and I’ve been avoiding sewing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,64,70,47,65],"tags":[11,32],"class_list":["post-3749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pants","category-sewing","category-sinclair-patterns","category-wearables","category-woven","tag-finished","tag-sewing-clothes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3749"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3765,"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749\/revisions\/3765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorrie.cranor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}