Weekend realness: Anima pants

Hi everyone! Haven’t seen you in a while. You know how it is. Life gets in the way. Since I started working full time I haven’t had much time for myself, let alone for my blog. But these sweet pants just needed a place on this little blog immediately.

This outfit is weekend realness for me. And evenings. And when I work from home. Ever since I made my first pair of Anima pants, they have basically become part of my house uniform.

This is the Anima pant by Papercut Patterns. It’s a casual/sport pant pattern. It has 3 variations: short, mid-calf, and full length pants. You can make them with our without the cuff. This pants pattern is definitely a TNT pattern for me. I haven’t blogged about my previous versions (of which there are 4), but trust me when I say that they are worn almost to death. It was definitely time for a new pair, especially if I want to get away with wearing them out of the house.

I squeezed these pants out of an odd shaped scrap of rayon jersey. It was 90cm on one side and approx. 1m on the other side. I was able to cut out all of the pieces except the pocket lining and the waistband, which I think look nice with a contrasting fabric anyway. This fabric was left over from a Kielo Dress I made this past spring (which I also haven’t blogged about, but it was heavily featured during me-made-may). I’m pretty happy that the backside has accidental pattern matching because there definitely wasn’t enough fabric for pattern matching. But I think the pattern is busy enough that it doesn’t look too bad in the front where the pattern clearly doesn’t match.

I’d definitely recommend making these pants out of a rayon jersey. They are super comfy and it feels like you’re barely wearing anything. They are great for yoga, sports, lounging, going grocery shopping, etc, etc. And I love that the pockets are deep enough to easily hold my phone. And they’ve kept my phone in place on a rowing machine, so they are definitely good pockets. If you can, choose a good quality rayon jersey with good recovery, otherwise the knees will bag out (I’m not sure about the recovery of this fabric yet, will keep you posted).

I didn’t follow the directions, as I have made these pants many times. I kind of wish I had consulted the directions quickly before I started, though, because I forgot to interface the pockets. So they may stretch out over time, especially since I always have my phone in them. I didn’t attach the waistband as is recommended in the instructions. I have made the mini Hudson Pant by True Bias, which is a very similar pant pattern, and I much prefer the waistband construction, so I used that method instead. The Anima pant instructions say that you should attach one side of the waistband to the pants, then attach one side of the elastic to the waistband, then fold it over and topstitch it. I was never able to get even gathers using this method. The Hudson pant, on the other hand, has you fold the waistband in half, attach it to the pants, while leaving a hole at the back to feed your elastic through. If that makes no sense, check out the instructions on the Hudson pant sew along page, here.

The other thing I changed was I didn’t add the holes for the cording. I put them in all of my other versions, but I never actually put any cording in them, so I just omitted this detail. Reduces bulk if you pull your t-shirt over your pants.

What’s your favourite house uniform? Let me know in the comments.