A pink pair of pants

I am almost finished with my perfect pink pair of pants. They're technically a muslin for a pair of trouser jeans I loved with all my heart until they died after many years of wearing.

Here are the originals, a pair of Meli Melo trouser jeans with a cute braided pocket band detail that made it nearly impossible to actually use those side pockets. So I omitted that detail for now. By the way, Meli Melo went out of business shortly after I bought these jeans, so I think it's ok to knock them off, right?

They got kinda tight over the years. Stupid washer and dryer! Shrinking all my clothes on me, even the ones I hang to dry. Couldn't be me, certainly not.

I cut them up after they split up the center back and used the pieces as a "pattern" of sorts. I found this stretch rosey denim at Hancock's for $3 a yard. The only drawback now, in hindsight, is that the rose denim has quite a bit of stretch and the original jeans weren't stretch at all, although they acted like it. They were 80% cotton, 20% poly, which is probably why they were so soft and acted kinda stretchy.

Because the originals had gotten a wee bit tight, I cut the pattern pieces with a one inch seam allowance, to allow for some adjustments should I need it. The stretch in the rosey denim took care of that, though, so I ended up not needing it.

I am really really really happy with the almost finished product, considering I was basically winging it. Had I remember these were a 'muslin' I might not have spent so much time getting the welt pockets just right, but I did anyway. They aren't perfect and there are still threads I need to snip, but they look pretty darn good from a distance.

I still have to take the waistband off and do some fixing so I haven't sewn on the button or buttonhole yet. For one, I totally forgot to interface it! Spaced out completely on that. So I wore the pants in to Ben Franklin to buy buttons and by the time I got home the waistband had grown considerably.

Sorry for the gross belly shot.

I created a curved waistband with some cotton on the interior, but I will be adjusting it and curving the center back seam even more to fix the gaposis that occurred while wearing. Not too noticeable in these pictures, but definitely there.

All in all, I'm really happy with them and I'll be trying my hand at a second pair and possibly a pattern posting soon.