An alternate title for this post could be: A Demonstration of How Much My Camera Sucks at Capturing the Colour Coral. That hot pink shirt that’s currently burning a hole in your retinas? It’s actually coral.

And those large-scale floral pants that are also currently burning a hole in your retinas? Well, I have no excuse for those. That’s exactly how they look. I mean, who am I to walk away from wildly colourful Bird of Paradise stretch cotton fabric without turning it into something loud to wear??

The pants are Haute Skinny Pants by Wardrobe by Me. They are (very) high-waisted skinny pants with an invisible side zip, designed for a medium-weight woven with 3 to 6% stretch, or a ponte knit. The negative ease and 3/8″ seam allowance scared me into cutting a size 4 instead of a 2, but ultimately I did a lot of taking in around the waist and thighs so I probably could have gone with the smaller size.

They have a waist facing that is fairly deep at the front, which helps keep the tummy in check. Love that. The only thing I didn’t love about the pattern was it didn’t include hip pockets. I have a hard time understanding the point of pants without hip pockets. Spare change, lip balm, office keys…these don’t fit conveniently in back pockets! So I added them in using this Burda tutorial on adding hip pockets as a guide.

Is it bad that there’s a bouquet of bird of paradise leaves sprouting from my crotch? I’m rolling with it. There could be worse things… 😉

I bought the material from Fabricland. I’m not that thrilled with it as it started to pooch out around the knees pretty soon after I started wearing the pants. Not sure how you would test for this problem in fabric before buying — any advice?

I wore these pants to a hair appointment on what has become the most hipstery strip in all of Toronto — Ossington Ave between Queen and Dundas — and one woman working in the salon complimented me very emphatically on my pants. So I must be doing something right if I’ve got the hipsters on board!

The back pocket placement is a little problematic. The pockets seemed very low when I marked the placement lines according to the pattern, so I raised them by about 2 cm / 1″ before stitching them on. I think they still look too low on the butt. If I make these again, I intend to raise the pockets by at least another 3 cm. But it’s not such a big deal here, as the busy print camouflages the pockets.

I intentionally turned up a very long hem allowance so that I could turn up cuffs at the ankles as I’m wearing them here, without showing the wrong side of the fabric.

In a bizzarre, unplanned, probably never-to-be-repeated, happy accident, I seem to have purchased fabric for a top that I can actually wear with the loud pants I made! Solid colour for the win! This is the free Plantain Tee from Deer & Doe that I made with a wonderfully soft modal jersey I bought at Affordable Textiles on Queen Street West in Toronto. Sooooooo comfortable. And look at that neckband — NAILED IT! (Gotta celebrate these minor major sewing victories, no?)

The tee has a comfortable a-line shape and 3 choices for sleeves: short, 3/4, or long. I found it to be quite fitted, so I switched from 5/8″ seam allowances to 3/8″ seam allowances before sewing the side seams. It worked out well.

It’s been quite some time since I’ve blogged but I do have a lot of projects to share with you. My poor #unsungsewingbloghero husband has been hustling hard with the camera lately trying to catch up! So I look forward to sharing lots more with you over the next few weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!