Yes, it’s another of last year’s garments. Photographed in October 2020, possibly sewn a few months prior. And no longer in my wardrobe, but I’ll get to that later.
The Arenite pants by Sew Liberated have been pretty popular in the online sewing community. I tend to stick with Style Arc for pants, because I know their draft. Pants are one of the most difficult garments to fit well in my opinion – so many shapes in so many dimensions to work with! The slouchy pockets appealed to me, along with the seaming. So I sewed them up in some deep stash fabric, which is a polyester of some type, possibly a microfibre. Perfect for a wearable muslin.
From the pattern website: The Arenite Pants are the luxuriously deep-pocketed, slouchy pants of your dreams. The pattern includes three leg finishing options – a knit cuff, an elasticated woven cuff, or a dressier hem. It also includes a view for knit fabrics, with two cuff options, for perfect, effortless loungewear. Whether made in knit or woven, the Arenite Pants blend cozy and chic, for a piece that can slip into any wardrobe, perfect for styling with tees, sweaters, and jackets, for relaxing at home, running errands, or dressed up for evenings out. They’re our new favorite pants, and we hope they’ll be yours too!
Learn to sew French seams, flat-felled seams and a comfortable, non-twist elastic waistband for a made-to-last, beautifully crafted wardrobe staple. This pattern is suitable for advanced beginners. It is the perfect project for those new to sewing pants or knits, as the fit is very forgiving. The Arenite Pants View A is designed for woven fabrics, with the exception of the knit cuff option. For the main pant, look for rayon challis, tencel twill, or silk noil. The essential characteristic of the woven fabric is fantastic drape. View B is designed for knit fabrics. Look for stable knits with a bit of drape such as interlock, sweatshirt fleece, or french terry.
I didn’t do flat-felled seams but instead overlocked, pressed to one side then topstitched. The fabric does have good drape, so worked out okay for the style. The reason it’s no longer in my wardrobe is that I don’t want to wear casual pants in polyester! I want a soft cotton, a rayon or linen. I will remake them eventually, in one of those fabrics.
The fit is very forgiving. They’re a loose style, and reviews that I’d read prior to cutting out indicated that many people went down two sizes smaller than their measurements indicated. I really wasn’t quite certain what to do, so went with one size smaller than my hip measurement. As expected, there’s plenty of room in the back thigh, which is usually the case for me. My legs are quite small compared to my torso.
The topstitching is a really nice feature, as are the slouchy pants. This type of shape works well on my type of shape with comparatively small hips and large waist and stomach. Because the waistband is elasticated it’s easy to adjust for comfort. I tend to thread through elastic into waistbands, safety pin the ends, then wear it for a day or two, adjusting the elastic as I go to get the fit just right. I think that I used one channel of wide elastic for these pants, and didn’t topstich through it.
It’s hard to remember the details from a year ago, but I assume that I shortened the pattern pieces mid-way down the leg before cutting out to accomodate my 158cm height. They’re still quite long and I’d shorten them even more in future renditions. I do like this pattern, and am likely to use it again.
