Fake It While You Make It: Persephone Pants + Wiksten Kimono = Love

Well, this summer has turned out to be much more eventful than expected (and not in all the best ways) so it's been a while since I've posted anything. This summer has also reminded me, however, that creative pursuits are often the best therapeutic outlet in rough times. When my dad was hospitalized for two weeks several years ago I knit constantly on a pair of socks and I'm 99% sure that those socks were solely responsible for the maintenance of my sanity.

In any case, back to somethings that I've made recently - another pair of Persephone Pants and a Wiksten Kimono. Now this is not my first pair of Persephone Pants. Truth be told, this is actually my fourth. My first were made out of some Bull Denim from Joanns. The fit was great but the fabric sags a bit after even a small amount of wear and because they're made from black denim, they're fading up a storm. The second pair was this striped pair which I still looooove. For the third pair, I went down a size to see if that would fit better. Spoiler alert - it didn't and those will soon see the donation pile. For this pair, I went back to a size 8 and made them out of some duck cloth from Big Duck Canvas. Between the fairly stiff, thick fabric and probably going up a few pounds in the past couple of weeks, these pants are now really tight (and wedgilicious).

I really do think that the thickness of the fabric makes a huge difference because my striped pair is the same size and remains nice and fitted without being overly tight. I'm planning on making a full length pair next for the upcoming fall and winter and I'll stay at a size 8 but I plan to use a slightly thinner fabric than recommended and hopefully that will keep the pants from trying to ride up in my nether regions.

Now on to the upper half of my body which is apparently garbed in an ever-so-wrinkled Wiksten kimono (I blame the kimono for the wrinkles because I wore it all the previous day too because I love it so much). For this pattern I hemmed and hawed about which size to make because everyone commented that you should size down in the original pattern but the ease was reduced when it became a printed pattern so I was at a bit of a loss as to which size to make. In the end I decided to follow the size recommendation on the pattern and I made a size small in the short length. Now this kimono uses an ungodly amount of fabric, but that's really the only negative thing I can say about this pattern because I love everything else about it. Truth be told, I've already made 3 (one in the medium length and two in the short length - maybe one day I'll get around to photographing them but don't hold your breathe). The one thing that I learned in making this jacket a couple times is that I now cut the pocket lining out of the outer fabric too because I couldn't get the lining fabric to be completely invisible on the outside of the jacket and it drove me a bit crazy so now I eliminate this problem by just making the pocket and pocket lining out of the same fabric. And I also learned how much I love when pattern matching works out. Look at perfect collar!