Joggerathon – So Sew English – Chelsea
The 17th pair of joggers on the Joggerathon is the Chelsea Pants from So Sew English. SSE was first a fabric company and recently started coming out with their own patterns in addition to fabric. The Chelsea Pants pattern has multiple inseam lengths (including Shorts, Bermudas, Cropped, and Pants), a number of different pocket options (a curved double pocket, banded slat patch pocket, banded slant double pocket, slanted double pockets and a slant patch pocket) and 2 waistband finishes.
The fabric for this pair is from So Sew English!
* The Joggerathon is going on ALL month long. If you would like to go back and see any of the previous posts on the Joggerathon, click HERE or to see the pattern line-up, click HERE.
** Don’t forget to head over to my instagram to see all the fit videos on my IGTV!
Price: $7.99
Size Range: 16 sizes // XXS-10X // 33.5″-85.5″ hip
Options Sewn:
- I sewed a straight XS. My waist and high hip are right in between XS and S, my full hip is 36″, so only a little bit bigger than XS and my thigh is right at the XS.
My Measurements:
- Waist – 27
- High Hip – 31
- Hip – 36
- Upper Thigh – 21
- Inseam – 28
- Height – 5’4
Fabric
I used Coral Peached Performance from So Sew English Fabric. This fabric is so nice! It reminds me of the fabric from a pair of RTW pants my hubby got me when I was pregnant. (They are so comfy that I can’t let them go!) This performance a poly/spandex blend (89%/11%) and is slightly brushed (like a peach!) with great stretch and recovery.
Recommended Fabric: No stretch requirements listed. Recommends French Terry, Brushed French Terry, sweater knit, double brushed poly, casual loungewear fabrics.
Instructions
Were the instructions easy to follow?
- Honestly, some of the instructions were a little confusing. The instructions have some incorrect “skip to step __” where it has you to go a specific step, but it’s not actually the correct step you should be going to, which can be really confusing to a beginner. It’s also missing some basic instructions like telling you to baste. (It has a picture but it doesn’t have the verbiage)
- Another confusing part was the pocket options. It says there are multiple double pocket (curved, slant, banded slant). It took me far longer than necessary to realize this just meant the pocket has a pocket bag. I was picturing 2 pockets, hence double. It was a big “ah ha!” moment once I realized what they meant by double.
- The other part of the instructions I didn’t particularly like was the cuff construction (they have you sew the cuff flat, before the inseam is sewn, sew the inseam and then fold the cuff back up and sew the bottom cuff raw edge back onto the first seam). I honestly see no benefit in sewing the cuff this way. Naturally, I went rogue and sewed it how I sew up every other cuff…once the inseam and side seams are sewn, sew the cuff together, fold cuff in half (wrong sides together) and match up quarter points of the cuff and quarter points of the leg opening together, pin and sew.
Pattern
DID IT LOOK LIKE THE PATTERN PHOTO/DRAWING ON THE PATTERN ONCE YOU WERE DONE SEWING?
Looking back at the photos in the listing, yes, the version I sewed up does look like the others when I was done.
WHAT DID YOU PARTICULARLY LIKE OR DISLIKE ABOUT THE PATTERN?
- The slant opening is HUGE. There’s no way anything is going to stay in my pocket. If I sewed this again with the slant pocket, I’d raise the bottom of the slant at least an inch, maybe more, and draw a new slant line. Maybe it would have turned out better if I would have done the banded slant option instead, but I’m not totally convinced.
- I sewed up the slant “double” pocket and I don’t love how it looks. The pants are too fitted in the hips to have a pocket with a pocket bag. It would look tons better with the patch pocket option (I may go back and topstitch the pocket down so it stays put). The way it looks right now, the pocket doesn’t lay flat and looks silly IMO.
- I understitched my pocket lining and it didn’t seam to help much. It forever rolls to the outside and I tried everything to prevent that!
- I don’t particularly like how they fit me in the legs. Maybe it’s more this fabric? It’s probably because they are fitted in the hip/thigh and then are a lot looser from the knee down.
- Even though this pair is 17th on the list, they are the first pair of the bunch that I sewed. So I didn’t sew the waistband as instructed on this pattern (sorry not sorry!). I was going to go back and fix it but because of my distain for the pocket, I said screw it and left it since I was so over this pair. I left the length of the waistband the same for the elastic WB, I just made the height tall enough to fit 2″ elastic in it. Turns out, the elastic waistband piece was a little longer than the pant opening, so I had to stretch the pants a bit to fit the waistband.
WOULD YOU SEW IT AGAIN? WOULD YOU RECOMMEND IT TO OTHERS?
I’m really undecided if I would give these a second try. I would tell anyone who has this pattern and is going to sew it to skip the slant pocket option, or alter it before hand so the opening isn’t super huge.
I would probably dislike them a lot less if I would have done the curved pocket but still, there are other jogger patterns that I like more and would recommend over this one.
Have you sewn up the Chelsea Pants? What are your thoughts? I’d love to know in the comments below! If you missed yesterday’s post for the JJ Joggers from Sinclair, you can check that out by clicking HERE. Tomorrow is the last pair of joggers for the regular fit with the True Bias Hudson Pants bringing up the rear!
Cheers!
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