One of the reasons that I love being able to sew is that I can (at least theoretically) make clothes that fit exactly the way I want. So, when I recently found myself in desperate need of new pants but unhappy with my option, I decided to have a go at sewing the high waisted elastic pants of my dreams! I purchased a pattern I’d been stalking for a few years now, the Elizabeth Suzann Clyde Work Pants and got to work.
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Picking the Pattern
As a woman nearing 40 who mostly works from home, this summer I’ve been living my best elastic-waist linen-pants life. However, I wasn’t quite happy with what I was seeing in the ready to wear market. The linen was too thin, meaning that the pants wore out quickly and were only good for summer months. I wasn’t loving the colors I was finding either.
When I started searching for a pattern, I was looking for someone that would be comfortable enough for lounging, without looking entirely like pajama pants. I’d been wearing these tapered pants from Quince all summer, so they were in the back of my head as I searched.
I was torn between the Sew Liberate Arenite pant and the Elizabeth Suzann Clyde Work Pant. They both have similar silhouettes and construction, but the Arenite was less expensive and had a few additional variations. However, when I noticed that the Clyde had three different rise and inseam options, I was totally sold. I’m a short girl (5″1′) with a high, narrow waist. All I want from my pants is an almost comically high rise and a hem that hits just above my ankle.
Fabric and Supplies
I was in an impulsive “must start sewing!” mood, so I was limited to what was available to my local fabric store. Also, since this would be my first time making this pattern (and I wasn’t planning on making a muslin first), I didn’t want to spend too much.
After wandering around for a bit, I settled on a few yards of Robert Kauffman’s Essex cotton/linen blend in the Espresso color way. I’d been considering using this fabric for a pair of pants before, but got distracted by other shiny fabrics. But given its easy availability (even Joann’s has it!), reasonable cost (about $13 a yard), and lovely texture, I decided it’s time had come.
I didn’t need much else in terms of supplies, just some 2″ wide elastic and matching thread. And, of course, my sewing machine!
Choosing a Size
Finding my numerical size was pretty easy. With a waist of about 35″ and 45″ hips, I fit neatly into the size 14. Since these are pull-on pants with no closures, I also made sure to check the finished size of the waist. At 43.5″ stretched, I knew it was large enough to be able to get up over my hips without issue.
ThenI ran into a bit of a problem. I realized that the rise and leg length options were bundled together. So, tall rise with tall leg, short rise with short leg. This makes sense from both a printing and patterning standpoint, especially since Elizabeth Suzann developed their sizing based on using the patterns for their ready to wear line. However, to get the fit I wanted I needed the tall rise and the short leg.
That left me with a few options, all of them slightly challenging in different ways. I could go with the tall version, which had the rise I liked, and redraft the leg myself to the right length. I could print the short version and try and extend the rise up to my desired height myself. Or, I could try and Frankenstine the two patterns together. Since we’re in spooky season, that’s what I decided to do.
Printing the Pattern
I opted to print at home using my home printer, both because of the afore mentioned Frankenstein-ing of the pattern, and because I wanted to get started right away.
The pattern files were set up pretty nicely. The printing layouts were designed with efficiency in mind, so each length (short, regular, and long) and size group (000-12 and 14-28) had their own print file. Normally I would complain a bit that there was no size overlap between the files for grading between a 12 and a 14, but given that these are elastic waist pants, that shouldn’t be necessary.
My favorite part about the files was that they included both cutting and sewing lines, and they put them on different layers! That means that if sewing lines confuse you, you can turn them off before printing. Personally, I love having sewing lines because it makes alterations easier and I only need sewing lines if I’m working couture style.
Assembling the Pattern
As always, assembling a pattern from letter size sheets was a tedious process. As much as I love the instant gratification of buying and printing a pattern, I often regret my life choice when I’m in the “pasting things together” stage.
Things got interesting when I started my length combining experiment. The pants are constructed using three panels: front, side, and back. The side panel is made of three separate pieces: the leg, pocket bag, and pocket/waist. So any length alterations needed to go across all three panels without messing up the pocket.
These pants have very few notches, which makes sense giving that they were originally made for production sewing. However, this also meant that I wasn’t able to use the notches as signposts when figuring out where to combine things. After some thought, I decided the best method was to mark a line perpendicular to the grainline on the front and back panels that intersected with the point of the crotch. I cut there on both the long and short sizes, then combined my pieces together.
The side panel was a bit more complicated. Both because there are no notches showing where to join the front and back pieces to the side panel and because the side panel is broken up by a giant pocket.
My approach here was to tape the side pieces together to form a full leg, then walk the seams to figure out where to cut. Now here was a the first place a made an error. I assumed that the notches on the pocket/waist piece intersected with the top of the pocket, but that ended up being a little off. I also didn’t realize until later that that the side panel was symmetrical, so I should have also walked the side seams of my front and back pieces to be sure they matched each other. These weren’t catastrophic issues, but they did end up causing me some problems later.
Samples
Yes, at this point I probably should have stopped and made myself a muslin sample. But I didn’t want to, so I skipped that step. Also, since the pants had an elastic waist, I was sure I’d end up with a wearable pair of pants even if things didn’t turn out perfectly.
What I did sample were all my seam finishes and the waistband finish. I still had some yellow thread left in my bobbin from the blouse I made, and since it was the same brand and weight as my brown thread, I decided to use it for samples. I find it helpful to use two different thread colors when sampling as it makes it easier to see what’s going on and make adjustments. But this only works if they are identical threads.
I found I didn’t need to make any tension or other adjustments to sew a basic plain seam. I used a 2.5 stitch length and the 90/14 needle I had left in my machine from another recent project.
I was thinking of using flat felled seams in some places, so I sampled that next. I hand basted the seam down after trimming and pressing to make my life easier, and then ran it through the machine. I loved the look, but there was one small issue: it is very hard to see what’s going to when the fabric is under the machine. The two color yarn-dyed weave really obscures the shadow created by the folded over seam. I decided to abandon that flat felled and just topstitch the seam allowance down on the inside, as in the original pattern.
That meant that I needed to find a way to finish my edges. I no longer have a serger at home, so I broke out the over edge foot that came with my machine and did a quick zig zag over cast. I honestly love doing this seam finish, because it’s so much less bulky than a serged edge and there’s no danger of accidentally slashing off too much seam allowance!
These pants use an all-in-one waistband and have the elastic topstitched in two parallel lines. I’d never used this exact type of waistband construction before, so I did a quick test of that too.
While sewing, I could see the benefits of making a waistband this way. It really is a quick and efficient process, perfect for mass production. However, there were a few downsides. First, I found it really awkward and difficult to evenly stretch out the elastic while sewing. I probably could have gotten the hang of it with practice, but my first attempt looked a bit of a mess.
The second, and for me bigger, issue was that this method of construction didn’t allow for any adjustment after the waistband was sewn. Once you chose your elastic length, that was pretty much it. I mean, unless I wanted to rip out multiple lines of stitching and resew them.
I ended up deciding to convert the waistband to a traditional casing. Partly this was because I didn’t feel like practicing the stretch-and-sew technique, but mostly it was because I like the option of playing around with my elastic length after finishing the pants.
Cutting the Pieces
Cutting the pants was quick and easy. The fabric I was using, the Essex cotton/linen blend in espresso is a pretty easy fabric to work with. Because it’s a yarn dyed plain weave, there’s no front or back. There also isn’t any nap, so there’s no noticeable “up” or “down.” I knew that as long as I stayed on grain, I could lay out the pieces any way I wanted.
The Clyde work pant pattern includes several different cutting layouts, based on the width of your pattern and the size you’re making. However, they all were based on having your fabric flat, not on the fold.
While I do have a good work surface for cutting (I use a foldable cutting table), it’s far from a professional set up. One long edge is against a wall, making hard to reach. So I laid all my pieces out real quick, saw that I could get a reasonably efficient layout on the fold, and started marking.
Since this was a dark fabric, I chose my white Chaco liner to mark my cutting lines. This gave me a sharp, accurate line that showed up nicely on the fabric. I weighed down the pieces with some Dritz pattern weights and I cut everything out using my 10″ Gingher shears.
None of the pattern pieces were tricky to cut out, so the cutting phase went pretty quickly. There weren’t very many notches or other markings to worry about, which also sped up this part of the process.
Sewing the Pants
After all of that work, the actual sewing was pretty smooth. First I assembled the side panels/pockets. The hardest part of this was seeing my seam line when doing the understitching on the pocket bag. The pieces for the side panel are symmetrical, so I didn’t have to worry about creating a left and right here.
Next the I sewed a front and back panel to each of the side panels. This was where I really had to pay attention to what I was doing so that I ended up with a left and right leg. This was otherwise straightforward. The one important thing I did here was start switching from my standard foot to a blind hem foot when doing the topstitching. This made it easier to keep my topstitching neat even when it was a bit hard to see what was going on.
Or, rather, it should have been, but I discovered that I’d made a small miscalculation during my patterning, so the center panel ended up about 1″ shorter than it should have been. Because the legs are so tapered, the hem allowance has to be flared a bit. This makes it difficult to change the length of the pants.
So, I ended up just sort of making things work down at the hems. I’ll need to correct the pattern before I make another pair of these pants, but you can’t see the error from the outside, so I decided to call it a win.
Wearing the Pants/the Fit
When I first put the pants on, I wondered if I had perhaps gone a bit too far in raising the waistband. It felt really high! But after a few minutes of moving around I adjusted and was incredibly happy! I also loved how the pockets stood out just a tiny bit and the tapered shape of the legs. I really liked the way these pants looked in the mirror!
I’m also really pleased with the fabric I used. It’s fully opaque and thick enough not to show any underwear lines. It has a small amount of natural stretch, so it’s really comfortable to wear. I can’t say yet how it will hold up over time, but as of now, I would totally use it again.
However, the real test of a pants fit comes not from how it looks, but from how it feels to wear. I decided the best thing to do would be to wear them to work, since that would be a full 8 hour day of moving about in various situations.
Once I started trying to do things in them, I could see that the pattern needed a little work to fit me perfectly. First, as suspected, I needed to tighten the waistband elastic. When I’m at work, at minimum I have my cellphone and my work keys in my pockets. This can be a lot of weight for an elastic waistband to handle. So, I made a note to take that in an inch or two when I got home. I also need to add a few rows of vertical stitching to keep the waistband from rolling, but I already assumed I’d need to do that.
The real issue was that the hem of the pants was a little too short and a little too tight. When I bent at the knee they pulled up too high and got caught on my calves. Not the most comfortable feeling.
For my next pair, this is an easy problem to fix. I just need to use a little of my patternmaking skills to widen the opening and add back in that inch of length I lost to my brain blip.
I’ll have to take a bit of a different approach for this pair. I think the best thing to do will be to remove a big chunk of the bottom then draft/sew a little extension. This would also give me a chance to test out how I’ll alter the pattern for my next pair.
Conclusion
Overall, this was a fun pattern to make! It was clear that this was adapted from a pattern that was meant for industrial production, which means it wasn’t designed to be easily alterable after sewing, but was made to be quick and efficient to sew.
I love the overall silhouette and the giant pockets, and with a few tweaks I think I’ll be able to make a version that fits me exactly as I like.
Have you made the Elizabeth Suzanne Clyde work pants? Let me know in the comments below or over on Instagram!