Lander Pants

Whew! We're just coming off a rush of travel and house guests. All very fun, but it's cut into my sewing and blogging time. So, better late than never, here are some pictures from the Make the Lander Pants class that I took back in February with my friend, Jessica.

The finished Lander Pants

The class took place at Hello Stitch sewing studio in Berkeley, CA., We had a blast.

I should have taken more photos, but the day was such a blur of activity that I didn't think of it until we were heading out in the evening.

The studio space is large and light and there are plenty of tables and equipment and space. The class was capped at 7 people (if I remember right), so we all got a fair share of our teacher's time. That teacher was Beth Gavin, who blogs at SunnyGal Studio. She kept us on point. Pretty much everyone walked out with a close-to-complete pair of pants, even though some of us were changing up the construction by subbing zip flys for the buttons and slash pockets for the patches. It's fun to see a bunch of different people sewing up the same pattern. Gives you great ideas for next time.

Since we were making a 70 mile drive to attend the class, we decided to treat ourselves to a Girl's Night Out in Berkeley. We stayed at a very cute AirBnB just a mile from the class location. Too bad the weather was rainy, or we would have taken advantage of the garden table to sip our morning coffee.

Cute garden

Cute living room with french doors

All in all a very fun get away. There's nothing like social sewing.

So, on to the pants. I've been a bit smitten with this pattern ever since it first came out. It's totally got the zeitgeist of the pants of my youth. Which, I admit, was in the 70's. We used to buy those pants at the Army Navy Surplus store on University Avenue in Berkeley. They came in blue denim and railroad denim. Gee, I loved those pants. And, thanks to the wonders of sewing, I can wear them once again!

Side view

I used Santa Cruz Twill from Hart's. The pattern called for almost 3 yards. Since I'm a short person, I think I have enough left for a skirt.

Back view. I think I had more butt in the 70's

I made the full-on button-front fly and patch pocket version and I like them a lot. They're comfortable  to wear and straightforward to sew. I also love the pockets.

Here's a button fly closeup. The top is a Kirsten Kimono Tee made from cactus fabric that turns out to be a good color match for these pants.

The only change I'll make next time is to swap out the straight waistband for a curved one. The straight band gapes a bit on me, even though I am pretty darn straight myself.

I've already bought some railroad stripe denim to make myself another pair of these pants. Now all I need to relive my high school days is a chambray work shirt and some hiking boots.

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.