So I sat down the other day, wrote about 3/4’s of a full blog post about these Persephone Pants and then my browser crashed and I lost it all. Ugh I was mad! So mad that I couldn’t bring myself to come back to my computer for a couple of days. I thought I had my blogging platform set to autosave, but I guess not. Oh well, I hope this post will be as good as the one I erased.
By now I’m sure you’ve seen the cult favourite Persephone Pants somewhere on the internet. They are a super high waisted, wide leg, sailor inspired pant and short, with a super cool feature: no side seam. When I first saw this pattern by Anna Allen, I dismissed them. I didn’t think I’d be able to pull off such a high waisted pant, let alone a cropped wide leg, but as time went on, they grew on me. And then one day, I realized I was obsessed! I just kept thinking about them and dreaming up versions to make myself. So finally I decided I better just bite the bullet and give them a shot.
I was a little conflicted about which size to make as my hip measurement put me firmly in a size 10 but my waist measurement put me in a size 14. Side note: why is it you don’t see more tutorials about grading up from the hip? It seems like they are alway about grading in at the waist and out at the hip.
Anyway, I had read that a few people actually sized down so I decided to go with a size 12 in the waist with a size 10 everywhere else. This probably would have been okay if there were a side seam, but alas there was not. So these babies are pretty tight. Like I can really only stand in them, and they aren’t that comfortable doing that. They sit right under my bottom rib and the tightness doesn’t feel nice.
I did interface the waistband, and had I not done that then this pair might have had a better chance. But I don’t think the waistband is going to give at all.
I should mention that the fabric is a lovely, light green, cotton duck canvas from a new to me Canadian, online fabric shop, Matchpoint Fabrics. I was actually worried it would be too stiff to be comfortable but it softened up really nicely in the wash and if these fit better in the waist, I’m sure it would be lovely to wear.
I actually quite like the cropped wide leg of these pants, and I bet if I got the size right in the waist, I would wear them a ton. Sadly, I don’t think these will get much wear. But the nice thing is, that because of the no side seam feature, it should be really easy to use the fabric for something else. Like a bag or something maybe. We’ll see.
The construction was quite simple and the instructions were great. I had a bit of trouble with the fly, but I think that was all user error. I unpicked it and redid and it turned out fine, although I wish I had done my fly topstitching slight narrower. I skipped the cool hidden front pockets as this is my wearable muslin, and I’m lazy. Ha ha! I think the front crotch curve needs some work; maybe shortening a little, or straightening out a little? I still haven’t quite figured out the mysteries of the front crotch curve. LOL. And I probably need a little more room in the back thigh. I did scoop out the back crotch curve on this pair by about a 1/2” and I let out the back inseam as much as I could to get more room which left about a 1/4” seam allowance. So if I were to make these again, that would need some work. Oh I also shortened the legs by 2.5”.
So there you have it. I think this has cured my obsession, and I’m ready to dream about other patterns now. I think the best thing I can do is maybe hack my custom Dogwood Denim jeans pattern into something like this. What do you think?
Also, I just realized that I didn’t really ever blog about my custom jeans pattern? I definitely talked about it on Instagram last year (😬) when I got it, but I didn’t blog about it. Do you want to hear about that?
Also, I never really did a catch up when I came back to this space so you might be wondering about the 2 pugs lurking in my photos. Last November, we lost our sweet Jackie Boy, the last of our original grumble of 4 pugs. Even though he was 14 when he passed away, he had been in seemingly good health, so his sudden death was quite shocking. He had a debilitating seizure and we had to let him go. It was incredibly hard and I still don’t think my heart has recovered. I can’t even describe the depths of my loneliness having to be in a house without a pug (or multiple pugs). It was like grieving the whole lot of them all over again too. Anyway, John and I took some time to grieve, and then we took in a foster pug in January. Of course we immediately feel in love with him, and we decided to make Comet’s residence permanent. He’s about 7 years old, incredibly handsome, athletic, sweet, super affectionate, and we love him madly. (Comet is the black pug). Then in March we decided we were ready to expand, and we brought a little 4 month old pug home with us. His name is Archy, and he is such a character. (Archy is the fawn puppy.) He is a true pug through and through already, and he makes us laugh everyday. We couldn’t have asked for better puppy. Comet has adjusted really well to our new addition and is being a fantastic big brother. They’re getting along really well and bonding quickly. So there you go, a quick update in case you don’t follow me on Instagram, or just in case you missed a post or two there.
Hope you all are doing well!