Flower Power Pants

When I first decided I wanted to try my hand at embroidery, my initial plan was to do some elaborate floral design on the back of a jacket - something big and bold. However, I quickly realised that this was perhaps a little too ambitious, given my only experience with it was watching characters on Bridgerton work on their needlepoint. I instead decided to make these pants with a much simpler, graphical design.

I started off by doing a quick sketch and then choosing my fabric and matching embroidery thread. This was probably the turning point in my new-found obsession with 70s-inspired styles, patterns and colours. The combination of yellows, oranges, pinks and greens in particular is something that you can see in a lot of my clothes and room decor after finishing this piece.

For the actual structure of the pants, I used a combination of two patterns (Simplicity and New Look) that I had left over from some other projects, along with some inspiration from another pair of pants that I liked the fit of. I wanted to make these pretty comfy so I opted for a wide leg and elasticised waist, rather than making them proper jeans.

After cutting the pieces out, I added the first flowers (after many practices on scrap fabric) around the pockets. Doing this before sewing made it much easier to fit the fabric into the embroidery hoop. To make the flowers I used a very simple lazy daisy stitch, with French knots for the middle. For the leaves and stems I used a combination of stem stitches (who could have guessed!?!) for linework and satin stitches for filling in.

For the pockets, I decided to do a different material as I fell in love with the design in the store and wanted to add an extra feature to make the design more interesting. This was a bit of an experiment for me, as I have only ever done side seam pockets, never a curved inset pocket. I really liked the more angular look of the pockets that were on the pair of pants that I was inspired by and so decided to implement that in my own design.

After sewing the body of the pants I added the final embroidery to the bottom of the legs. This was all the same stitches as mentioned above, with a bit more variation in flower type to make it look more cohesive. This was all done a bit rushed as I was in a hurry to get it done before I had to move back to university (where I don't have a sewing machine). In fact, I even ended up bringing it with me and doing it on the sidelines of my brother's football game.

Despite the time crunch, I was really happy with the end product. The only thing that I would change (if I were able to go back) would be finishing all of the raw edges with a zig-zag stitch to prevent them from fraying. This is a technique that I hadn't started to do until after finishing these pants, however, the looser weave denim that I used would definitely have looked better (from the inside) if it had been finished. I mean, it's always an option to still do it (if I get around to it), so maybe I'll fix that in the future.

Song inspiration for these pants is another Harry Styles song (I swear my music will become less predictable), this time Sunflower Vol. 6.

Alice xx