made by rae - rose pants in fanciful fabric

When I'm experimenting with a new pattern I often make samples using a basting stitch; it makes the sewing go faster and allows me to adjust the fit really easily as I go. I baste the seams and pin the hems, and often I don't finish one sample before I move on to the next one to experiment with some new variable.

This pair of cropped Rose pants was one of those samples. I cut and basted them together one day last fall when we were working on some aspect of the pattern. I used this gold quilting cotton print from my recent line for Cloud9, Fanciful, and as the weather got colder, I lost the motivation to finish them. However, when the weather started to warm up a couple months ago, I pulled them out and sewed them up properly.

I'm happy to report that I think quilting cotton actually works quite well for Rose if you want a pair of lightweight pants or shorts for warmer weather. I've discussed some of the issues you should consider when sewing garments with quilting cotton before, so check out this post (also Fanciful garment, interestingly!) for that discussion.

The print itself is really fun and I got a "Wow. I like your pants! They're so....FLORAL!" from the checkout guy at Kroger when I was buying groceries the other day (me: "Thanks! I made them myself!").

The "fit-as-you-go" technique is something you can also do when making a muslin or sewing a pattern for the first time. Jess discussed the virtues of basting your seams to "fit as you go" in this post, and I'd encourage you to check it out if you're unfamiliar with that technique.

Meanwhile, I'm wearing these babies with the bounty of other gold things in my closet -- it seems to be my color of choice lately (here, here). One recent make is this this cropped top version of the Emerald dress that I made with leftover fabric from the sample I made for Making magazine (see it here).

We do intend to release an expanded version of the Emerald dress later this year as a standalone pattern (currently it's available as a dress in Making magazine); it will include all 11 sizes in our new range in addition to this cropped top option, which I totally adore. My top versions of Emerald have definitely been in heavy rotation this summer. Not sure I will wear it with these pants -- it's a LOT of gold, even for me -- but it's kindof fun, right?

For more about Rose, check out the Rose page, get inspired by all the amazing Rose pants and shorts on Instagram, or buy the Rose pattern in my shop!

Fanciful Rose Pants

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