Jun 10, 2020

Pietra Pants by Closet Case Review

The Pietra Pants

From the moment I saw this pattern I knew I wanted to make them. I love the flat front on the trousers combined with the elasticated back I wanted to make these my go to trouser pattern.

The back of the Pietra pants

I read a few blog posts about them and did a bit of research first, I know they are designed high waisted but I think the main point was that people found they may have been a little too high waisted. Well maybe for short people anyway, which I am one of those so I knew I was going to need to do some adjustments.

A toile was needed, I had some fabric which I was gifted a long time ago, black twill type shiny fabric, not sure of its fabric content but I thought it would suit.

I started by tracing the pattern and taking 5 cm from the front and back of the pattern, this is where I made my first mistake. I also took 5 cm out of both the front panel and the pocket which meant on that front panel I took 10 cm total! Whoops. I didn’t realise this until my denim pair, I’ll talk more about this later

Back to the toile, I then managed somehow to iron on my interfacing to the wrong end of the pocket. Oh dear again, not sure where my head was with these, that then meant I had to reduce the front panel to cover this mistake up.

The rest of the sew went together ok. It was now down to the fit, before I popped in the elastic I popped them on, they were far to low on the back. The front was ok, after my mistake with the interfacing but it meant they were also pulled and low on the back.

Added panel in the back

Seeing as these were a toile I had learnt quite a bit about the fit already. I did think that the fit on the back top was due to my mistake with the interfacing and didn’t make any adjustments there when I cut my next fabric.
To fix these I added a panel on the back which was narrow on the side getting wider at the middle back to allow for the low rise.

Pietra pant toile

Finished and sewn up I really like the shape and style on me, I learnt a lot from the toile and thought I had it right for the next pair.

Pietra pants toile

Medium Weight denim – these we the next pair to be made.

Medium Weight denim

Because on my first pair I hadn’t realised I had taken the 5 cm out of the pocket and the front trouser panel when I cut these out the front panel was 5 cm shorter than the other trouser panels! Haha, oh well a cut off pair of trousers was fine by me.

I sewed these together relatively easily, I think the sewing of these trousers is easy but as with all trousers it’s the fit you are trying to perfect. Next stage is the trying on, again without the elastic and what did I find……

Too high at the front for me, and ok on the back maybe a little bit low!

The Pietra Pants

I unpicked the front facing took out a further 3 cm around the front, this meant the back on the side was a bit high so a did a bit I jigging (that’s an official sewing term don’t you know). I angled the back section to keep the width on the centre back but match the sides with a narrow section. The elastic still fitted so that was good. It did mean you could see my stitching across the back where the elastic is but I don’t think that maters, it almost adds detail.

My finished Pietra pants by Closet Case