These pants were first thought up as one part of a full outfit after perusing a couple online RTW stores to see what teens were buying these days. There were so many fitted crop top options being offered, but we didn't feel inspired to make a pattern for one ourselves. So what then? How about the rest of the outfit instead?!?! We imagined a high waisted pair of pants (maybe even with a bit of that "mom jean" cut that's making it's comeback) and an oversized open front hoodie to layer over it. That 'hoodie' eventually turned into the Miss Limestone Coat/Cardigan which released back in November. And now, without further ado, we're ready to present the Miss Wood Lily pants!

These pants are drafted for mid-weight woven fabrics with 10-25% stretch. They feature a high waist wide waistband with optional belt, side zipper closure and multiple hem/cuff options. Front and back pockets are also both optional. One final inclusion to this pattern is a shorts cutline. The shorts have a 3 1/2" inseam, but you can use the lengthen/shorten line to adjust this to your own desire.

Something we really want to make sure we mention as much as possible is the fact that this pattern uses a 5/8" SA for most of the seams (where the rest of our patterns use the typical 3/8"). Keep a close eye on the tutorial steps as anywhere NOT using a 5/8" SA will be stated in bold. With these being pants, and in a less forgiving (ie - woven) fabric, we REALLY wanted to make sure there was some extra "wiggle room" for people to make adjustments for their own bodies as they went along. (If you do an internet search there are all sorts of helpful blogs for adjusting for things like pelvic tilt, sway back, flat bum, and so on.) We ALWAYS suggest making a muslin of a pattern like this, but there's also always the possibility that your nice fabric behaves slightly differently than your muslin did and we want to make sure there's enough fabric to play with to get you an awesome fit!

As with all of our Junior Miss patterns, Miss Wood Lily includes lengthen/shorten lines so you can easily adjust for your height. We draft for a 5'5" height and whether you actually ARE that height or not there are 2 spots you'll want to check to see if you need to make height adjustments. Inseam (measure from crotch all the way to the floor along the inner leg). We draft for 30 1/2", so if your number is different you'll want to add/remove height from the leg portion of the pants.

You'll also want to check crotch length. You can tie a piece of narrow elastic around your natural waist as a guide and then measure from center back waist, through the legs and back up to center front waist pulling the tape snug to get your crotch length.

These pants are meant to fall just slightly below natural waist so use your crotch length measurement and compare to the finished rise measurements to see if you need to add/remove length in the rise of the pant. I can't stress enough how important these measurements are no matter what height you are! Someone who is 3" shorter than our draft height was surprised to find their crotch length was actually right on par WITH our draft height. Based on that knowledge she knew to only shorten the pants along the actual leg, NOT in the rise.

Depending on your fabric choice (a sturdier corduroy or twill, or a drapy viscose or linen) you will likely find that the pant leg hangs differently. It's a great idea to check your pants with the shoe/boot/heel style you most intend to wear them with before hemming or permanently sewing the cuffs on to see if you're happy with the overall length. Drapier fabrics, for example, may tend to pool down over the cuff where a sturdier fabric wouldn't. Or you may find you want a slightly more cropped pant if you intend to wear them with ankle boots so they're not grabbing/getting pushed up by the boot.

Fabric options:

This pattern requires at least a little bit of stretch to be able to comfortably sit in the pants. A woven fabric with even 10% is enough to make the difference between sitting easily or not. We're recommending fabrics with 10-25% stretch with the disclaimer that you may want to size down when using the 20-25% stretch stuff. It will tend to stretch out just a bit more when sewing, resulting in looser feeling pants than a 10% stretch fabric would.

When shopping online some fabrics will list their stretch percentage making it easier to choose. However, we've come across a number of fabrics that are NOT listed as stretchy and don't even contain any lycra/spandex content (which can sometimes be a clue that a fabric will have some "give") and yet when holding them in person we've discovered they do in fact have about 10% stretch and recovery. (Some examples are Lyocell Twill and Lyocell Viscose we got from Sitka Fabrics.) So how can you choose? Obviously in-person is the best way to check a fabric's stretch, but when shopping online you really will just have to rely on the stretch% being listed, look for clues like at least a 2% lycra/spandex content or even contacting the shop owner to ask when possible.

Whatever fabrics you choose and however you style your Miss Wood Lily pants in the end, we really hope you'll share your pics with us and inspire others by them as well! Post in our Sofiona Sewing Group on Facebook, or tag us on Instagram (@sofionadesigns) #sofionadesigns #sofimisswoodlily #misswoodlilyinthewild