Perfect pants quest

HMost people, sewing enthusiasts or not, have been on the above adventure their entire life.  

While taking a course from S. Betzina, I learned to make a wonderfully fitting pair of "puzzle pants".  Sandra B., herself, arrived in Madison in the best looking pair I've ever seen.  Very slimming, and a subtle patterned fabric in blacks.  Finally found my fabric at Harts fabric in pointe, black lace on black, the best fabric for these pants.  Wore them on our recent DC trip and flying back to our winter home near Palm Beach, to lunch, that's how versatile they are.

Another perfect pair of pants for me I found at Chicos.  Jeans up to the waistband, then a wide elastic filled band to hold in the "momma tummy".  Tried the style arc pattern for these, but they were too tight to pull up.  Found a Jalie pattern reviewed on PR and they say the stretch denim/cotton needs at least 20% stretch for them to work.  Maybe that was the problem with the style arc pattern, which is in the frozen North still.

So, I "muslined" these jeans in a stretch cotton I've had so long the folding creases are almost permanent.  Allowed 1" on both the front and back, checking the fit with the Chicos pair

Love the fit, but my butt is not going public in them yet!  Nevertheless, this is a great pattern.

Didn't do the double jeans topstiching on this test pair.  

An added advantage was they go with this wonderful Citron silk top I didn't have much to go with.

Citron is a Santa Monica based husband and wife team that design their own exquisite prints (I'm clearly a print fan) and sell at Ruperts in Madison, WI as well as small boutiques nationwide.

My next pair was going to be this black on black (lightened to show the pattern)I've purchased twice from Marcy Tilton (the first run was a NYDJ copy/wadded-see, my perfect pants quest is dead serious)

Then, I found all the stretch denim on sale at Jo Anns this week.  A few minor adjustments (sew elastic to waistband with a LOOOOOng zigzag to add stretch) later, I love the fit and the slightly animal/camo print in blues and black.  Found the perfect black top, too.

Now,  I'm possessed and have ordered lots of stretch pant fabric from Marcy Tilton as I'm in love with this new "perfect pant".