There’s so much I want to tell you about the Emma Trousers. Hopefully, I can pull it all out of my brain and get it translated to into cohesive sentences.

I guess we’ll start at the beginning. Sewcial friend Beth, @110creations, introduced me to Foxy Patterns. Beth tested Sandra’s first pattern, the Madison Blouse, and couldn’t stop raving about how well executed the pattern and testing process were AND that testing is paid.

I told Sandra Emmas were love at first sight. The front yoke is a trendy detail that I don’t have in another pattern in my library. (The Gobi Culottes have been on my radar since ads for these rtw shorts follow me around.)

I like to do a quick baste fit when I’m trying new pants. This means I cut the front (without pocket opening), back, yokes, and waistband only and sew them together with the longest stitch. With body measurements 29” waist, 39-40” hips, I planned for a size 10 graded to 8 waist. I clearly had quite a bit of gaping at the back waist, which is very common for me. I swapped out the straight waistband from the pattern and used my go-to curved waistband and the fit was much improved.

I pulled those apart, cut the other pieces and finished them without any other changes.

I was incredibly surprised by how comfortable these non-stretch (what i call hard, hard) pants were. I’ve not drunk the Lander or Persephone koolaid, but have sewn Morgan jeans. With her higher rise and more roomy hip, Emmas fit my curves better.

I needed to make an indigo pair.

Sandra drafted us a curved waistband! I made this pair exactly the same as the previous pair, just using the curved band and a heavier weight denim.

Fall is upon us, so I needed a rust twill pair. With wear, I found that my pants, though non-stretch, did relax quite a bit and felt a bit too baggy for my liking. I decided to “size down” from here on out, so the next pair is a straight size 8..

I removed an inch off the length of this pair and also slimmed the outseam slightly from the knee down.

You might notice two colors of top stitch thread on the rust pair. I got a new machine just about the time I was finishing that pair and Sunny is a boss.

A linen pair also followed. Inspired by the pleated wide-leg trousers I’ve seen trending, I added a bit of width (edited to add- approximately 3”) at the front between the pocket opening and center front, which is taken up into a pleat.

I’m sharing a few detail shots on these as I made a few changes.

I omitted the pocket facing and used the same linen (I believe it’s Essex) for the pocket bag. (This is described in the pattern.) The leg is essentially straight from the hip down. I used the Isle jeans as my guide for this cut. (Sandra added a wide leg view to the final pattern!)

Linen is quite keen on relaxing, so I thought I ought to account for that. I added a snap tab on the back waist with multiple fastening widths.

Should I make Emma in linen again (and I certainly should), I think it would beef up the yokes as those seem to be under a bit of stress. Either two layers of linen fused to one another or sewn with a yoke facing.

See also- Beth’s black Emmas and Aria’s sage green, wide leg version. Incredible, and her first ever pair of hard pants!!