Hot Patterns Wong-Singh-Jones Marrakesh Drawstring Pants

Um.  I might not know where to start.  Well, I most definitely know you don't start with the instructions.  Because there barely are any.

I'm pretty new to the world of sewing, but I'm always up for a challenge.  Maybe it stems from my teacher's pet days, or maybe it's because I'm incredibly stubborn and refuse to give up.  I figured drawstring pants would be a great place to start when it comes to pants.  They're not incredibly fitted, and there are fewer seams.

I needed a pair of loose, comfortable pants to wear in Iran because I knew it was going to be hot.  I found slub linen on sale at Joann's and got to work on my pants.  Or at least I tried.

The instructions are incredibly confusing and are not ideal for someone with very little experience.  With broad statements like "attach waistband", unless you have done one before, you probably won't know how it's supposed to work.  Also, I was not a fan of the approximations of how much fabric I would need.  I don't want to be told, "You'll need about 2 yards of fabric", because it depends on the type of fabric, the pattern, if there's a nap, if you are making super big pants, the width of the fabric, etc.  I am paying you, the pattern manufacturer, to tell me how to make these pants, so can't you at least give me proper instructions?  I almost feel like someone who didn't know how to sew wrote the instructions.  That bad.

In the end, the pants turned out okay, and just okay.  They were too tight on my butt, so I had to make some adjustments for that, and the zipper is a bit wonky because the instructions are really terrible (I got to the point where I had to pull out a pair of my jeans to figure out how they had been assembled).  The concept of the pants is nice, but execution-wise, I need to re-design the assembly process.

Pants before I attached the waistband: crazy zipper, prominent pockets, and "pilates bedonkadonk" before I adjusted the seat

The pants worked out great for my trip: they were comfortable, breathed nicely, and dried quickly, especially when given how low the humidity is in Iran.  I'm glad I chose a slub fabric because it needed zero ironing, even though it is indeed linen.  I've worn the pants a few times at home, but since the weather has cooled off, I haven't been wearing them.  I'll be keeping them for at least another season.  Perhaps I'll make another pair of pants in the future, but only after I've had some practice with a different pants pattern.

Persian culture has a thing for unibrows.  And for some reason my pants look incredibly short here.

I would only recommend this pattern if you are particularly masochistic, or you have a decent amount of pant sewing experience under your belt (pun intended).

xx