Garment Patterns
Christine Jonson Wrap Pants
Wrapped Up
When we started carrying her patterns, Christine Jonson sent us a trunk-show of samples. In it, she included a pair of her not-yet-available Wrap Pants, and, upon seeing them, I was transported back in time! If you are younger than 50, wrap pants are a novel idea. If you’re older than 50, you had a pair in high school, and you LOVED them! (Mine were green, and I think I made them out of quilting cotton). On the night of the trunk show we received dozens of inquiries about this pattern’s availability. Almost everyone who saw them wanted to sew them right then and there. Well, I’m happy to report that the PDF pattern is now available!
Fab(ric)
Like all her patterns, the Christine Jonson Wrap Pants are best suited to fabric containing Lycra. (See our Moto Jacket blog post for fabric lessons learned). For my pants, I used a Polyester/Lycra Designer ITY Knit in Gray. The fabric is lightweight, and yet it doesn’t show lumps and bumps (phew). With this pattern, drape is important, so don’t be tempted to use a thicker, stiffer fabric.
Impeccable Pattern
The pattern itself is exquisitely drafted. Because the pants are loose-fitting and made with knit fabric, Christine suggests measuring your outside seam length and comparing it to the pattern, instead of the usual inseam comparison. My side seam measured six inches longer than the pattern side seam, but I only added five inches because six inches seemed like so much (tall girl problems!).
Room for Improvement
The instructions are a little hard to understand. In PDF form, they are 36 pages long (approximately 1 step per page), but they include photos. I ended up writing the instructions on a single piece of paper, and referring to the photos when necessary. You’ll want to actually follow the instructions because the order of construction makes the pants really easy to sew together. By some miracle, I decided to pay attention to the ‘order of operations’, and I am so glad I did!
The Confident Stitch YouTube Channel to the Rescue!
This pattern requires a ton of hemming; especially if you lengthen the pants by five inches! I followed my own advice and used SewkeysE 1/2″ Extremely Fine Fusible Knit Stay Tape on all the hems. I then hand basted the hems in place before I topstitched them with a narrow zig zag. It paid off, and the hems all turned out beautifully. I recently posted a YouTube video about my Hemming Knits method, so be sure to check it out!
Will you be offering the Rub Off class again? Would a regular button down shirt be ok for that? thanks, Jan
Janet,
We are actually providing another Rub Off Class 6-8:30pm, Monday, September 16th and Tuesday, September 17th. A button down shirt, as long as it is made from a woven, non-stretchy fabric will probably work great. The class instructor, Jen, suggests that, when you are attempting to copy a garment’s pattern for the first time, the garment you pick have minimal shaping and stitching and less than 10 separate seams (not including hems or necklines). You can email a few pictures to Jen at jennifer@theconfidentstitch.com and she will then be able to confirm if your particular button-up is a good choice! You can sign up for this class by following this link, and, if you are unable to make these dates, keep checking our class schedule because we are planning to make this class a recurring staple in our repertoire.
These pants look truly amazing on you! Definitely the perfect fabric choice for this project.
Thanks Rachel! I can’t wait to make another pair!