YSL PANTS — Victoria Martinez

Been a minute! School is eating my time, so sewing and blogging is on a real backburner. It’s not bad.

I picked up this pattern from my fav FB sewing auction group (the true reason to still be on FB) and had been just looking at it here and there in my bedroom for awhile. I had another project started last semester but had a couple of misfires with it and was feeling frustrated, so I dropped it and switched to this as a post-exams project reward. A Vogue Paris Original from my adored Yves Saint Laurent for a blouse, scarf, coat and pants!! (Vogue 1589)

The fabric is from Core Fabrics, where it was listed as a jacquard. That seems like the wrong category to me - while the pattern is indeed woven, the weave isn’t what causes texture. Rather, it’s double faced, and the two patterns are tacked together along colour edges, created something like a quilted effect. It’s a weird fabric and frayed like hell! Bc one side uses black as dominant and the other as white, I went for ~~contrast ~~ pockets, using the white-dominant side rather than black-dominant.

I went with top down center out fitting on it, but screwed something up in the translation and wound up with a giant waist at first real fabric pass. I subsequently removed one inch from the fronts only at both side seams (somehow I also wound up with the side seams way far back) and deepened the back darts 3/8” each.

The fit is not wildly different from my BHL Hollys, and at one point I thought about simply making those rather than fitting a new pant. But YSL!! Learning new things! Appropriately, the try-new-things instinct was a little undermined by the one thing this pattern came missing (as warned by the seller!) was a page of instructions - those for the pants. So when I realized there was some unusual to me drafting about the front pockets, I didn’t know how to approach and wound up redrafting. The main thing is that the pocket facing (the part you see, I’m not sure if that’s called the facing or no) was less wide than the front bit, and it called for light gathering. I just redrafted it wider to make sense to me. So nothing new was learned here, and I have another dartless wide leg pant pattern prepped.

The thickness of this fabric made for thick seams, but the machine was up to it. I just zig zagged the finishes and that’s led to one big problem, which is that the inseams are huge and I can real feel them. They should have been faux-felled. I’m not sure I’ll be able to now without unpicking the outseams, which I’m not keen to do. I may do it by hand just for comfort. I’ve been doing lots of handwork at school, mostly mending, so this seems like a good option.

Innards are pretty cute other than the zig zagged finishes - found a good colour match between quilting cottons and bias tape in stash, and finished up the whole zip with aplomb.

I’ve used five belt loops instead of four, which was accidental. The drafted belt loops looked quite small, especially for how thick my fabric is, so I lengthened the piece. But then after topstitching, I cut it in five instead of the dictated four, and wound up with the same length of belt loops I started with. I didn’t feel like re-doing it, so small belts are the situation here.

Pattern: Vogue 1589
Fabric: Core Fabrics Graphic Block Print Jacquard (but more like a double faced affair) - Black + Cream, 300 gsm, 83% Coton, 17% Polyester (link to another colourway). Scrap quilting cottons for waistband inner and pocket bag front.
Notions: One post button from the button box, homemade victoria tag, Inside Voices not tested on animals tag, Ban-rol waistband, stash zipper, thrifted bias tape, knit interfacing.
Measurements: 31 in waist, 39 in hip
Size made: Size 12, extra width added at side seams only
Mods: Fitted via top down center out & trial and error, pocket bag redrafted, extra belt loop.
Next time: Slightly deeper pockets would be nice, as would be a pocket stay style. Would also be good to do the facing pocket in a lighter fabric, with just a jeans-style patch where it’ll be visible.