Sewing : McCalls 7445 Cropped Pants

This year I joined Me Made May to challenge myself to wear only me-made, thrifted or refashion clothes on the month of May. I did wear them everyday, but by the second weeks, I keep repeating the same outfits and it gets kinda boring. Through this challenge, I realised that I don't have any me-made pants. None.
Culotte pants are really in right now, I tried my sister's culotte pants (before deciding whether to buy or to make it), but nothing fits me right, it's too long, too wide and unflattering to my body shape.




As usual I read a lot of sewing blogs before attempting this pattern - McCalls 7445 and it got a lot of good reviews too. I reused the Vogue 9075 toile as it is big enough for this pattern. It was a quick and easy sewing as I decided to remove the front pockets, knowing my body type - I didn't like pockets in the pants, as it did nothing to my shape and it only attract more attention to my tummy area.

I sewed the toile few days before my period, which is my bloated-tummy weeks. So when it was time to sew the real thing, my tummy return to its shape and therefore I found a lot of gaps on my waist after I finished the waistband.

The fabric is rayon wool blend suiting, the kind that you make for office pants and stuff. I bought 2 meters of it and it costs me MYR 24 in total, They ran out of black, so I chose the grey one and I think the colour is great.



In the end, I added belt loops to the pants, so I can wear my belt with it. After 3 trials I finally learned how to make belt loops and it's not perfect but it's good enough. I paired it with 3 different style of tops tomboyish, dress up and casual) and I think it blend perfectly with the rest of my outfits.

I always think that pants are not meant for girls with curves, all my life I've been holding myself from trying on jeans and pants, because I think that my butt is too big for them, all this time I hide my curves under the skirts, cause I can't squeeze in my thigh and my butt into a pair of jeans, it's frustrating. I love my curves, but nothing fits me - that's why I got into sewing the first place.

My body is not the problem, I'm not a failure if I can't fit into a jeans. So don't blame your body, don't change them for the sake of looking good in jeans. Now I know that with the right size, style and length, I can look good in pants too.



Sewing Summary :

Pattern: Mccalls 7445 , look A.
Fabric: Grey rayon wool blend suiting fabric.
Notions: Threads and zipper.
Alterations: Even though my waist is usually size 16, but it's too big for me, so I graded it into size 14 instead, I shorten the length by 3" to create the cropped look. I even remove the pocket. The waistband is too short so I added few inches to match the waist part, but doing so created a gap at the back, so I added elastic band on the back and sew 5 evenly spaced belt loops.
Difficulty: Easy, the instruction is easy to follow, though I'll do it differently on the zipper part - sew the crotch before putting the zipper.
Make another one: Yes, in different fabric like heavy linen and figure out the waist part before attempting the next one.
Notes: Make a toile to see if the crotch area is right and check the length.