At long last: the HP Marrakesh Drawstring Pants

This pattern is quite possibly the oldest unmade one in my stash.  Seriously, I ordered it on March 6th, 2011.  That is 3.5 years spent unmade.  Sigh.  It was also my first indie pattern purchase.  

 

While still living in India, I purchased some gorgeous white linen in order to make these pants.  I ultimately decided against making them because the water (undrinkable and non-chlorinated) would turn your whites gray.  Our white bath towels became very dingy and I didn't want the same thing to happen to my white linen.  And so the pattern lingered and lingered...until now.

 

I used a gray stretch suede-like mystery fabric.  It does not press well so I imagine there is a high polyester content.  In any case they are smooth on the inside and fuzzy on the outside.  

I made a size 16 and then took in the waist over an inch at the center back seam.  They are also drafted to be very long...~34" inseam.  I hemmed mine at 28"!


I added 1" to the CB seam to accommodate my pear shape.  I think the crotch curve should be lowered a little bit, it is a little too high for trousers.

The construction was not without drama.  I made 2 goofs on the waistband.


#1: I cut the front waistband too short:

 

 

#2: I put the buttonhole on the right front waistband vertically thinking it was for the drawstring...nope, it's for a button.  And I didn't make the vertical buttonhole for the drawstring at all.

A little cutting and piecing later, it was fixed:

I did the same thing to the right front waistband: cut off the vertical buttonhole, added a new piece (I lined the seam up with the fly topstitching), added the vertical drawstring buttonhole where it needed to be and made a horizontal buttonhole at the center front.


The drawstring is a elastic/fabric combination.  The elastic is hidden in the waistband, and the fabric ties come out the front.  The fabric ends are too wide and too short, which makes them both bulky and difficult to tie.  I plan on sewing the elastic in permanently and chopping off the fabric ties.  I don't need a big lump on my stomach from bulky drawstrings. 

Other changes I made were to topstitch the side seams from waist to hem to help the seams lay flatter.  My fabric was rather springy and didn't press well.  I also skipped top-stitching the pockets down.  I thought this would look too casual and wanted to keep my elastic waist pants as classy as possible ;)


The legs were very wide which made me look very wide and like I was swimming in fabric.  I tapered the legs in 1" on both the out-seam and inseam from the knee down.  The legs are still plenty wide but much more flattering this way.


This has turned out to be a comfortable and nice looking pair of pants.  I approve.