These Flint Pants by Megan Nielsen have sparked something in me, guys (hehe, see what I did there?).

These are pants you can sew in just one night. One night!!!! I didn’t even know it was possible.

Once I had these cut out and ready to go, I came home from work one week day and started sewing at 1830. Hubby and the little monster were away, so I could actually just binge eat junk food and sew all night long! By 2200, I was done.

Buttons hand-sewed in and all.

It doesn’t get much better than that!

Inbox sucker

This pattern found its way into my stash because I am a total sucker for marketing. Towards the end of last year, in an effort to curb my consumption, I unsubscribed from a bunch of mailing lists and sent others directly to junk mail.

Cuz my eyes are just soooooo much bigger than my sewing time these days.

But I’ve developed a bad habit of periodically trawling through my junk box to see if I’ve missed anything.

Does anyone else do that?

While doing so that I came across a 50% off offer from Megan Nielsen patterns. So, promptly, like a good little consumer, I bought three patterns I’d been eyeing off for a while: Flint Pants, Rowan and the Cascade skirt.

I’d only ever sewn one Megan Nielsen pattern before, the Tania Culottes. I really enjoyed that pattern and found them super practical as a cycle-commuter, so I was looking forward to trying the Flint Pants. Plus, so many other sewists seemed enamoured by them.

So I went in with high hopes.

And the Flint Pants did not disappoint. One night pants. Did I mention that yet?

A woolsey adventure

This fabric is Woolsey Goodnight from Merchant and Mills. It is a linen/wool double gauze and I must say that when I found it, I was so excited by the notion that I have linen pants I can wear in winter! It’s a blend of 78% linen, 16% wool and 6% polyester.

However, while the fabric is lovely to work with and super warm (I wore my Flint Pants while cycling to work in an Arctic-like blast of -10 degree temperature recently), I have had one significant problem with it.

It pills like crazy. To an extent that it is rendered unwearable after one day.

This is how much it pilled the first day I wore these pants:

I contacted Merchant and Mills about the problem and they said that after thousands of metres sold and many re-orders, this was only the second time they had heard of this problem. They gave me credit for the value of the fabric. All in all, their customer service was great, but it’s definitely impacted my excitement from what was otherwise a winning sew. I know I was just crapping on about how it only takes one night, but that one night was my only completely selfish night of sewing from 1830 that I’ve had in 3 years, so it kind of sucks when it was all for nothing…

I have gone out and bought a razor thingy for “de-pilling”, which removes pills but does so, essentially, by shaving the fabric. So I expect that these pants willonly last half a dozen wears or so before they are rendered unwearable.

I used my Merchant and Mills store credit to buy their regular linen in the same shade, so I hope to replace them as soon as I can find some more sewing time…

My pair of Flint Pants

Anyway, let’s leave fabric woes aside and get back to the Flint Pants. Cuz the pattern is just ace.

My pair is an L at the waist, grading down to an M at the hips. In the end, however, my waistband was a bit long, so I ended up taking about an inch of it off while attaching it. The waist band is just a straight rectangular piece, with no curve, since the Flint Pants are so high-waisted, so this wasn’t problematic at all.

I wanted my pants to be full-lengthened, rather than cropped, as designed, so I added one inch. I probably should have added one more.

Finally, on minor details, I used a stash scrap for me pocket lining, since my fabric was rather thick. Plus, I always love getting a glimpse of a favourite fabric – in this case Atelier Brunette Moonstone Blue.

Straight out the envelope 🙂

The Flint Pants were a breeze to sew. The instructions were excellent and I was never lost in any way. These pants actually fit perfectly straight out the envelope. I made no modifications at all to the crotch or seat seams.

I actually couldn’t believe it when I basted them to test the fit, expecting to engage in the complex task of pants fitting, only to see that I was totally happy with them.

What a great feeling!!

Sewing lessons 101: Bulk interfacing

The instructions for this pattern also introduced me to a concept I hadn’t thought about before, but which may revolutionise my sewing: Bulk interfacing.

Do you guys do this?

Instead of cutting out your pattern pieces in shell fabric and then in interfacing, you can simply cut out a piece of shell fabric big enough to fit all the pieces that require interfacing, then interface the whole piece. Then you just cut out your pattern pieces from this pre-interfaced fabric. Ingenious. Wastes more fabric and interfacing, of course, but probably well worth it for the time saving trade-off. I will definitely try this on an interface-heavy project, like jeans.

Does everyone else already do this and I am just totally behind the 8-ball?

A pocketful of closure

The main reason the Flint Pants are such an easy, effortless sew, is the clever closure approach.

There are no zips.

Instead your left pocket is left partially open, which give you enough room to get in and out.

The waist band then closes over the top of the pocket with two buttons and optional ties. While the ties are very cute, I decided to forego them. I think the ties will look great if you plan on wearing these with tops tucked in. But since I often tend to ” tuck-out”, I was worried the ties would just add bulk on one side.

I love the minimalist look of my plain version. To keep it super-clean, I inverted the placement of the buttonholes and buttons, so that mine are invisibly hidden on the inside of my waistband. The only other tiny modification is that I felt like my left pocket (the one which opens), was gaping a bit, so I secured it  to the front of the pants for a few centimetres at the bottom, a tip I learnt to prevent pocket gaping while sewing my Sasha Trousers.

Flint Pants vs. Nagoya Pants

Now, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed that last year I made another pair of wide-legged navy trousers: the Nagoya Pants.

Since I always love a good show down, I have to say that the Flint Pants pretty much win on all fronts for me as a wide-legged trouser. I feel that they are more flattering on me. They are immeasurably ahead in terms of comfort and fit for my body. My Nagoya pants don’t see a lot of wear because they are uncomfortable in the crotch and I haven’t managed to successfully re-fit them. They just kind of hurt and I feel desperate to take them off by the end of the day. These Flint Pants, I could sleep in them.  I usually find high waists uncomfortable, but the Flint Pants feel fine.

In terms of sewing ease, Flint is also by far the simpler and quicker project. Nagoya has a fly front and belt loops to add to the occassion, which make for a much more in-depth sew. And if you really love belt loops, it would be a breeze to add them to the Flint Pants.

So, in sum, whilst the fact that I have used very different fabrics, of course, plays a significant role, in the future, having made both, I will hands-down turn to the Flint Pants the next time I want a pair of wide-legged pants. Which, since this ones won’t last for long, is probably going to be pretty soon….

Oh and, finally, a little P.S! If you like to get your blog hits through Bloglovin’, feel free to follow me over there: you can find me here.