The Auber-chinos.

The next instalment in the *Naomi makes all the pants* saga has arrived.

These are the Named ( ❤ ) Alpi Chinos. I like the fact that if you say the pattern name fast it sounds like a fancy coffee (as Jo said) or Al Pacinos – “Say hello to my little friends.” However given my choice of fabric colour, I stand by my blog title as the best name for this particular iteration.

Very few people on the interwebs seem to have made these little puppies and I can’t understand why. They are wonderful and I predict I will make many more.

A few gripes first. While I love Named, they do have some issues.

I’ve reconciled myself to adding seam allowances and tracing the pattern pieces – meh. But it’s really annoying to cut out your back pockets only to find – on a page of what appears to be non-pattern-specific sewing instructions  – a text box telling you to add a 3 cm seam allowance to the top of the pocket. Grrr.

This time there were no overlapped pieces on the pattern (WIN) so I added the seam allowances with coloured pencil, and mainly cut out the actual pattern. I traced the pant leg pieces onto tracing stuff to tissue fit as per Pants for Real People. *Side note, I’ve decided this step doesn’t work for me as I tend to over correct. From now on I will just measure pattern pieces, increase seam allowances and fit the fabric as this is where things work well for me.*

The other little annoyance was the instructions for making the pockets. What is it with Named and senselessly complicated pocket construction? They have a 3 piece pocket bag construction – overkill. I’ve just made the back of the pocket bag (i.e. the part that rests against your body) into one pattern piece… like EVERY OTHER PANTS PATTERN.

Ok full caps rant over. Other than that, I love the cut and style of these pants.

My alterations:

1. Deepen the crotch curve – I will pretty much always need to do this
2. Take in the back inner seam – this means I get a bit more grab under the butt which I like
3. Added 5cm to the leg length – just in case
4. Add 1cm to top of pants – this means I can allow for my higher right hip
5. Add 2cm to the waist band at side seams – I always cut waistbands large and fit to my body as I’m so straight through at the waist, however I’ve noticed a definite tendency to over-correct here so next waistband I am going to make tighter
6. Pinched out a diagonal CB seam in the waistband – next time I think I would do a small sway back adjustment in the CB seam of the pant too
7. I also ended up taking some in off the side seams, so I’m not 100% sure what size I fit yet in Named patterns. This fabric has a fair bit of ease in it, so I would still cut the 42 next time just in case

I’m not 100% happy with the way the back legs are hanging – there’s a little bit of pooling and pulling – but I hope to work this out in the next iteration. Which I predict will happen soon as I love this pattern. I also think my next iteration will be made with a far less drapey fabric which the pattern is really designed for.

Another note on pockets here: the pattern just has you folding the outside edges under 1cm, pressing and attaching. I think sometimes Indie patterns cut their noses off to spite their faces by not including basic tips like stitching the curves with a long stitch and slightly gathering the fabric up so as to make turning on the curve easier. This is something I have definitely encountered as an instruction on Big4 patterns and it makes this job so much easier.

I’ve made these up in some lovely aubergine coloured, light-weight wool suiting from The Fabric Store. It has a nice drape – probably not required for this pattern – and some form of poly something that prevents creasing. I’ve used some of my deco fabric for the inside of the pocket bag – secret lining, always awesome.

Apart from the gripes identified above, these were easy to sew with good instructions. The funny thing is, after having made my last pair of pants with the first ever fly front I was all “piece of cake mate!” about doing the fly on these. Of course it had a completely different construction and it was like I had never done it before!

Here in Christchurch NZ, these pants will probably be able to worn most of the year apart from those few unbearable summer weeks where I generally want to camp out in the frozen foods section at the supermarket.

Another success in the quest for the perfect pants.