McCalls 8098 and Quin Cowl by Gracie Steel Crepe Fabric Orange & Black from Minerva

Did someone say fun pants?! 🎉

We’ve been staring at McCalls 8098 for a while now. It has an elastic waist (therefore VERY comfortable), and gathered (therefore FUN) – so we couldn’t wait to make them. We made view B, the full length view without the contract panels.

The only issue is deciding what fabric to use… there are so many options! Plain colours, stripes, floral, checks – so many options that would look great in these pants. When we saw this crepe, we just loved it. The contrast of the orange and black so eye catching! 😍

Stretch Woven Polyester Crepe Fabric Orange & Black

This is the Stretch Woven Polyester Crepe Fabric Orange & Black from Minerva. It is a deadstock fabric, which has a 15% stretch on the width of the fabric (which helps with how comfy they are to wear!). It is also 150 cm wide, which makes it really easy to be creative with the pattern layout.

We decided to make the most of the width of the fabric. So we widened the bottom tier of the pants to stretch to the full width of the fabric. To balance out the tiers, we also extended the middle tier of the pants to help balance the gathered. Next time we make these pants, we can’t wait to make them in a more stable fabrics like a cotton poplin – something that makes the most of the gathered tiers!.

McCall’s 8098

These pants are quick and rewarding to make! We wore them for the first time today and got so many compliments. This is probably because the style is so unique, but it was definitely amplified by the fun fabric!

The McCall’s 8098 is also available on the Minerva website here.

Quin Cowl by Gracie Steel

Now… the ongoing issue we have with pants is deciding what top to wear with it! This issue is usually why we decide to make dresses, but we decided not to let this stop us this time! So it was time to make a matching top!

You may think this is quite a bold combo to have a matching top and pants in this fabric… and you are not wrong. we love the matching set, but we also have plenty of black tops to wear on days we want this outfit to be less “bold”.

This top is the Quin Cowl by Gracie Steel. The cowl neck sits like a dream in the cowl neck! We’ve made this top in plain back, but it is the first time we’ve made it in a pattern. It is such an easy to sew, tank top style pattern.