Note that, as of Monday evening 11/26, all Vogue patterns are marked down 75% on their website. According to the email I received, the sale ends Friday, Nov 30th.
Vogue caused some confusion when they released the holiday patterns on October 25th. You may recall that they identified this skirt as a Marcy pattern:
As pretty as that skirt is, it sure didn't read as a Marcy pattern. Sure enough, by the next day, Vogue quietly corrected their error. They had mislabeled the skirt and had neglected to label Vogue 8859 as Marcy's pant. I almost mentioned it on the blog, but I figured people would quickly notice and my original post calls out this pant as an interesting pattern.
What?! You don't haunt the Vogue website like I do?
So on Thanksgiving weekend, I made two pair of Marcy's pants. I might have stopped at one, but I made two pair of Katherine's and, as a mother of two girls, it's best when things are "even". ;)
This pattern calls for either a double knit, such as ponte, or a stretch woven. I seem to have a collected plethora of stretch wovens, so that is what I used. This pattern features tucks at the front knee and the instructions provide three possible ways of handling these tucks. I used a different variation in each of my pants. The pattern also includes back pockets, which I omitted from both pair.
The back of this pant requires three pattern pieces: a yoke, the upper back (ends at the knee), and the lower back. The yoke and lower back are cut on a normal grain, but the upper back is cut off grain. It is cut on the bias, though not on a true bias. This is very interesting and, I imagine, affects how the pant fits in back. Surprisingly, the pattern does not include the finished measurement for the hip/waist on the pattern tissue, but it's not difficult to measure it yourself.
I cut a size 16 in front and a size 14 in back, which is equivalent to the same size I used for the Katherine pants, though the size range of her pant is small-medium-large.
Pair #1
For the first version I chose a rather wild flocked stretch denim I purchased on sale from Marcy's site. Since the print is busy, I chose to use variation #1 for the tucks, which is to merely fold them at the side seam. I like this effect but some might find it a bit sloppy - I realize this pair of pants won't be to everyone's taste. I top-stitched this pair using black Guterman top-stitching thread, which is rather hard to see against the flocking. I finished this pair on Saturday morning and wore them out with DD1. They are wild and fun.
Pair #2
I wanted a more sedate fabric for pair #2, to better showcase the knee detail. For this pair, I used a lightweight stretch woven in a brown/grey color that is sometimes called anthracite. For this pair, I used version two for the tucks, which is basically sewn across and then edge-stitched. However, I think I found an error in the instructions, which tell you to sew the tuck with the fabric right sides together and I believe they meant wrong sides together, or it makes no sense to me. The version three tucks are similar to version two, but edge stitched on both the inside and the outside of the tuck.
Conclusion
I love both pairs of pants! I finished the second pair Sunday evening, but I've already worn the denim pair twice.How do these pants compare to Katherine's? Aside from the obvious seaming/tuck differences, it seems that the Marcy pant is slightly more fitted through the thigh to the knee, but only slightly, and the Katherine pant seems a bit more pegged at the ankle. I laid the patterns on top of each other and the shape of the fronts and backs are different. Both pair are pull-on and can be made from double knit or stretch woven fabrics. I didn't shorten the Katherine pant (unusual for me) so they must run on the short side. I shortened the Marcy pant by about 3/4", so they are a bit longer.
I like both patterns.
Do you realize that I have five new pair of skinny pants? Two Marcy pants, two Katherine pants, and the Style Arc Cassie pant. I'm in skinny pant heaven! But my next project will not be pants. In fact, I made another garment over Thanksgiving weekend, but haven't photographed it yet and it's not pants, either.
