Well folks, they can’t all be winners. I won’t call these woven Hudson Pants a fail—they’re still wearable and hella comfy. But even after some major surgery, they’re just… not great.

Note: Please forgive the optical illusion effect that the stripes give off in these pictures. They look totally normal in person—I swear!

For starters, the print I chose reminds me of pajamas. More specifically, Bananas in Pajamas. The fabric itself is fine: a 100% cotton stretch twill with 15% stretch across the grain. It’s a true medium weight though, and I think these pants—when sewn in a woven—would work better with a floatier, lighter textile.

Kelli’s woven variation tutorial on the True Bias blog suggests going up two to three sizes, so I cut a 12 instead of an 8 this time. I must have forgotten about the stretch in these pants when cutting—looking back, I should have cut a size 10 considering the 15% stretch. Here’s what they looked like before surgery:

As you can see, they are YOUUUUGE, even with a 3/4″ seam allowance (rather than the suggested 3/8″ SA). There’s tons of excess fabric in the crotch and hip area, and the length is kind of off. Here’s what they look like postsurgery:

The fit still isn’t fantastic in the crotch area, but I had to stop somewhere. Fiddling anymore with these pants would’ve driven me mad, especially considering I sewed the elastic waist too loose the first time around and had to pick out a bunch of zigzag stitches through two layers of fabric AND the elastic. Woof. These pants were truly a test in patience. Pretty sure I got a C–.

You might be thinking, “They’re not too shabby from this angle!” You’re right, they’re not. But what fun would a sewing blog be if it didn’t reveal its hideous underbelly? In the interest of transparency, here’s what the crotch looks like now (avert your eyes if you want to avoid gratuitous bunching):

Elastic-waisted anything always rides up that high on me. The extra crotch depth I added deters any camel toe, but there’s just still too much fabric there. I added a few darts to help fix the issue, and they definitely help. I’m glad I added the cuffs, as I think the pants look more modern and less pajama-like now. See, it’s not all cold pricklies and pessimism here!

The Nitty Gritty

• Lengthened the pants 3″ at the lengthen/shorten line.
• Followed Kelli’s instructions re: altering the pocket pieces, adding length to accommodate for hemming instead of sewing on an ankle band, and grading the leg opening a little wider. I cut the main pocket on the cross grain, and I love the way the stripes play against each other.
• Cut the waistband on the bias for similar stripey goodness.
• Ended up adding cuffs, cut on the bias after measuring the leg opening.
• Added 1″ to the crotch depth on the front and back pattern pieces. On my second pair of knit Hudsons, I added 1″ to the crotch length. That seemed to help a little bit with the camel-toe issue I had on the first knit pair, but the second pair seemed to pool too much in the front, so I figured it might be more of a depth vs. length issue. For a little background on that, here’s what the Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing has to say:

The crotch depth is the measurement of the distance from your waist to the bottom of your hips, taken when you are sitting. . . The crotch length is is actual length of the crotch seam, taken between the legs, from waist at center front to waist at center back.

• Added two small darts in the front and back to reduce some of the excess fabric.

All-in-all, these pants aren’t a total bust. They really are comfortable and I think they look okay styled with my Ruby Top. In reality, I’ll probably wear these around the house on my work from home days. Normally I’m wearing shredded old pajama shorts and a tank top when I work from home, so these pants will be a vast improvement. And who knows—maybe they’ll grow on me.

Have you sewn any duds lately? If you have, at what point did you throw in the towel? Commiserate with me, it’ll be fun!