Pants from 240 Rosie the Riveter pattern

November 17, 2023 2 Comments

by Molly Hamilton

I have been wanting to make a pair of wide leg pants for a year now, ever since I bought a pair I loved at a boutique in Asheville last winter.  They were so comfortable and easy and fun to wear, that I knew I needed to make another pair for myself.  I also knew that we had the perfect pattern in Folkwear's collection.  Our 240 Rosie the Riveter has a great pair of wide leg trousers that have plenty of room, nice pleats, and back darts. I really love this 240 Rosie the Riveter pattern.  The overalls are very cute, the shirt is wonderful (just make it a size or two smaller than you might think), and I also really love the dress that can be made from the overalls pattern, which is taught in the blog post and not actually part of the pattern.  But, I hadn't made the pants yet.  So two weeks ago, I made myself a pair of pants!

For fabric, I was first interested in a Tencel twill in a dark color, but the only Tencel twill we had in stock was an aqua.  But, I also really like our sanded twills and we had quite a bit of a khaki green color, so I decided to use that.  We now have several more colors of sanded twills, and if you are interested you can see them here.

For sizing, I am between the Folkwear sizes Small and Medium for waist and hips.  I measured the waistband and felt that the medium size would be most comfortable and fit just right at my waist.  There is little to no ease in the waist, but plenty of ease in the hips.  I made a muslin to decide if I wanted to make any other adjustments. 

There is a lot of room in the crotch of these pants.  The crotch is very low and this allows plenty of room in the seat area for moving, squatting, and sitting (as you might be doing if you were working putting together tanks in a factory in the early 1940s).  But, I didn't feel I needed or wanted quite so much room.  So I raised the crotch in the front and back by 1/2" (13mm).  That isn't a lot and I could have done a little bit more, but it was perfectly fine for me and made the fit better.  I used our tracing fabric for tracing the pattern and making adjustments, as you an see below.

I also shaved off a little (maybe 1/4"-1/2" (6-13mm)) at the side seams near the hip.  I also know that I usually need to increase the length of the legs of our patterns for myself, so I added 1" in length to the leg.  These pants have a very straight leg (pattern was folded below, so it looks a little wonky, but it truly is straight!), so lengthening and shortening can be done at the bottom of the leg. 

The only thing that was really different from the ready-to-wear pair I bought was that the Rosie pants have a back zip and button rather than a front fly.  Since I don't love making a front fly, especially if I have to draft it myself, I decided the back zip was perfectly fine for my own pants.  And honestly, I think I like it better!  The front is flat and comfortable. Instead of a button in the back as the pattern indicates, I used a hook-and-eye closure, which I also liked better and found it easier to use. 

I really like these pants! They will be a wardrobe staple this fall and winter.  Note, the shirt I am wearing here is made from our white handkerchief linen and is made with the 212 Five Frontier Shirts (classic view without the decorative yokes).  Now I want to make another pair, maybe in a fabric with a little more flow (like a Tencel twill). 

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