Another Au Bonheur review

I made up another of the Au Bonheur patterns I ordered recently. This time a funky pair of pants. It is a fitted pant with an unusual banded bottom edge. The band is sewn on so that it forms folded peaks. A stretch fabric is required for as you can see it fits very closely. I raised the rise about 2 inches to hang from just below my waist and I eliminated the front zip. I also eliminated the waist facings to use elastic instead.

The pants are pretty simple to construct with the bottom band being the only thing different from many pants. Basically you sew all the long seams leaving the center front and center back seams open for the bottom 6 inches or so. Sew the crotch and side seams. Then you stitch the bottom bands to the bottom of each leg. The odd part is that the band will turn 6 corners going around each pant leg. You will need to stay stitch the edge and slash to each corner to make a smooth seam. They don't mention stay stitching or slashing at all. Since there are no markings for where you should reinforce and slash I found it easy to stitch the entire length of the band, pin it in place and then slash at the corners. Hope this make sense.

I think this pant only looks good with the cropped length. Sfshaza tried these and didn't like the look but she lengthened them to full length. I think that creates too much fabric puddling around your ankles. 

I used a light weight denim with lycra. The sizing requires a stretch fabric. It doesn't suggest a knit but I think you could use one that has some stability to it. I started to make the size larger after my experience with the coat sizing. I actually made a muslin which is a rarity for me. I usually just fit as I go after a tissue trial. After running up the muslin in size 42 I could see that was too big, cut it down to 40 and found that that worked. It may not be the perfect fit for me but close enough.

I'm enjoying these patterns. Even the translating is fun although it seems a bit like homework for my high school French class.