Jocole Skinny Pants

 I purchased the Jocole Skinny Pants as part of the Pattern Revolution Womens Bundle Up Sale.  I was pretty excited about this pattern because I am a  bit of a fan of skinny pants.  I love wearing them and as a mother, I find that skinny pants, a tunic top and ballet flats are a classic yet comfortable look.  Add that to a yoga waist band... what more could I ask for?

After asking a friend of mine who was involved in testing the pattern, I decided that in this case I really needed to do a muslin.  I often do new patterns in cheap or reclaimed fabric the first time I make them. This time I chose a bright peach cotton drill I picked up at a market for $4 for 5m, which I would never expect to wear.  Just the ticket! As you can see from the pictures I am glad I took the time to make a muslin.

I wanted to make sure these fitted me just right, so I measured myself again.  The measurement chart had a thigh measurement - Hang on! I have never done that before! - I had to go and check out WHERE on the thigh I was supposed to measure. The answer was pretty simple, on the widest part.

I compared the waist, hip and thigh measurements, to the measurement chart of the pattern and found that I crossed over 3 different sizes.  It is times like these I am glad to have nested patterns.   When tracing the pattern, I used the measurements for the waist, hips and thighs and customised the fit by blending the sizes. 

First muslin front view

First muslin rear view

The first thing I noticed with the muslin is that it was only "skinny" to my knees.  I am not really surprised by this as I have endless problems buying boots - my ankles are too skinny. Too bad I don't have that problem in other areas! A couple of centremetres off the side of each leg from the knee down took care of that problem. 



The other obvious problem was a gape just above my bum.  The sway back strikes again. A great cheat sheet for adjusting for fit is located here.

 I went for the simplest method of fixing this and essentially made a dart on the centre seam of the muslin and cut that amount off the pattern piece.  The result was a pretty flattering fit. 

Now on to the 'real' pairs.  The first pair I made with some teal cord - basically because it's COLD here and it was in my stash.  The stretch was a bit more than I expected because I haven't worn cord since I was a kid and didn't have a feel for the fabric.  That is not all bad because they are sooooo comfy.  Please excuse the slightly dodgy selfies!

The other pair I made with denim look fabric and top stitched to look like jeans.

I have had lots complements on the finished pants so I am very pleased I invested in this pattern.

Happy sewing! :-)