Hacked Hudsons: Woven Linen Jogger Pants

Sometimes I dream up a project and get myself geared up for it by getting the fabric and prepping the pattern and then when it’s finally made I find it pretty lackluster and all because I let two years pass between the gearing up and actual making of. It’s a pretty egregious (and preventable) sewing error and I’ll have to be more careful in the future!

To be clear, I really like how my woven Hudson pants turned out! I just think I would have liked them more if I had made them when I conceived of the idea instead of nearly 3 years later (doh!).

I really loved the idea of some woven joggers and my first attempt was using the Arenite Pants pattern as my base (which is drafted for woven or knit fabric so, in theory, could have worked very well). The problem was that I bought the fabric and cut out the pattern but then didn’t sew it up until I was about 1 month postpartum. I quickly discovered those pants wouldn’t fit over my butt so they never got finished. I still had the idea in my head so I finally got around to trying again. This time I used the Hudson pants pattern, mostly because I love the slash pocket. And because I recently made this black pair so I knew a woven version would work!

I took a couple other liberties with the pattern hacking and turned the waist into a paper bag waist. I didn’t want a ton of fabric at the top so I made my elastic channel a generous 1.5 inches, which left a scant .5 inch at the top for the paper bag waist effect. Once the elastic was inserted, I topstitched atop the elastic twice to create a channel for the tie and inserted that.

I was worried that the ankle cuffs wouldn’t be yielding enough to get my foot in and out, but there have been no problems thus far.

I’ve made a handful of pants recently and it seems one thing I can’t get right is the back pockets. They’re always screaming to be redone and this time was no different! I don’t know if this has anything to do with self image perception or not but I solidly place my back pockets about an inch too far down and an inch too far out. Of course, everything was tacked down very securely before I tried them on to check pocket placement so unstitching will be a beast! One of these days, I will learn! I’ve worn these pants once so far and felt so completely self-conscious of my rear end that I know I need to fix the pockets before wearing them again. They’re currently sitting on my sewing table awaiting adjustment because they will get zero wear as is.

This pair also has me wondering if I should increase the rise of my Hudsons to get them closer to my natural waist. I don’t think it’s totally necessary but maybe it’d be more flattering?

The solidly best thing about these pants is the fabric! I want to go buy swaths more of it! It’s a stretch linen that contains linen, cotton and spandex. It’s medium weight and has the lovely dobbiness and texture of linen but with a healthy (20-30%) stretch. The other pair of woven Hudson pants I made had 20% stretch but really didn’t feel all that stretchy. But with this linen you can absolutely feel the stretch. And because it has spandex, the recovery is great. I want more of this fabric in my life even if I don’t have a plan for it. I’ll figure something out (they have the same fabric in khaki! Think of all the comfortable and versatile pants you could make out of a khaki stretch linen!).

I blab about it all the time but I really love my Hudson pattern. It’s great as is but also incredibly hackable. It was fun changing things up for this version. I am happy with how these turned out and know they will get some wear, even if it’s not something I put on every single day. And it’s done! I can finally move it out of my brain!

Pattern: Hudson Pants by True Bias
Size: 12
Adjustments: Shortened leg (can’t remember how much!). Used 1.5 inch elastic to allow for .5 inch paper bag waist ruffle. Used woven fabric instead of recommended knit but didn’t size up since the fabric had a good amount of stretch.
Fabric: 2.5 yards Stretch Linen from Raspberry Creek Fabrics (it’s 44/45 inches wide, so I bought a little extra yardage to be sure I had enough)
Cost: fabric $30; thread, elastic, pattern from stash
Would I make this pattern again?: Do I even need to answer this any more???