Did you know that Mood Fabrics has free sewing patterns? They began offering them a couple of years ago, they keep adding to them, and it’s grown into a pretty large catalogue. I’ve downloaded 3 of them already, and finally made one of them: The Brya Pants, an athleisure design that I just had to try. Mood has written about this pattern three times on their blog as of the writing of this post. I decided to make them after seeing the 2nd post, entitled The Brya Pants Redux.
I bought the recommended fabric for the pattern, the Bamboo Stretch French Terry, see pic below. This fabric was shown in the 1st and 2nd blog posts on their site. The 3rd uses waffle knit.
My Thoughts And Critiques On This Pattern
It’s a fairly simple pattern: the waistband front and back is the same size, and the same for the cuffs. The pockets are open curved front, which I like a lot on sweatpants. I also like the cuffed leg bottoms. Finally, the design of a non-drawstring waistband was appealing: easy to wear. They look like an ultra comfy and stylish pair of pants, which is why I chose to make them.
Now to the truthful facts:
You get what you pay for, and in this case I paid nothing. Don’t get me wrong. I like the pants, however I had to make several sewing edits to these, and as of this writing I still have to, even though they’re technically finished.
This pants pattern was drafted extremely long. At first I thought it was part of the design style, meant to work with the ankle cuffs, which is why I didn’t shorten the pattern before I cut it. My now more educated guess is that it’s to accommodate different heights of people who might download this pattern.
The pants were way too baggy in length on my first go round of sewing. I’ve since gone back in and cut them down 3 times, and I’m probably gonna go for a fourth and hopefully final cut as soon as I find some time. Why? Well, they’re too heavy, and they’re making one side of the waistband sag when I put my phone in the pocket. I’m hoping that by cutting off more of the slack I’ll lighten the weight of the pants and take some of the burden off the waistband. After the 4th mod, I’ll have cut them down by probably 8 inches total. By the way, every mod of the pants length involves gathering the newly cut down pants legs and re-attaching them to the cuff.
And speaking of the waistband, lets talk about it. I cut the the same size waistband as the pants fronts and backs (20/22). I found that to be too big, and I then cut a 2nd waistband in the next size down (16/18). I began to find THAT one to be a bit too big, so instead of cutting a whole ‘nother waistband, I did some delicate sewing surgery. I ripped open the stitches at the side seam, which I’d noticed wasn’t quite matched up anyway. I then took in the waistband by a 1/2″ (1 cm), dropped in some basting stitches to the pants body to gather them there (the original gathering stitches were kind of weak in that area because it was the end of the side near the seam join), and re-gathered the pants body in that area to accommodate the now smaller waistband. It worked, and for a while I was satisfied. Heck, I even did my photoshoot of me wearing them for this post. However, for the reasons stated in the previous paragraph, I’m going to mod these pants ONE.MORE.TIME. Hopefully that’ll do the trick.
In regard to the waistband, I have to say that I think it might’ve been better served by using an interfacing stabilizer: nothing too heavy, just a lightweight interfacing designed for use with knit fabrics. I think that a waistband such as this one, that has no drawstring and is tasked with having to hold up a lot of excess pants leg fabric, would benefit from some extra stabilization.
I also wonder if the fabric was right for this project. Really, I have yet to see if it is. It’s a bit thin for outdoor winter wear, but it’ll be perfect for spring and fall. I wonder if a slightly heavier fabric would’ve worked better, something with a bit more substance. A heavier sweatshirt knit I think would work well for winter. This particular fabric that I used is extremely stretchy, it has super 4 way stretch, and was on the expensive side. Many of Mood’s fabric listings feature clothing icons to show customers what garments the fabric is best suited to making with it. This fabric’s listing lacks that those icons of guidance, and I bought it completely on their recommendation. It’s a lovely fabric, but I personally feel that there might be a better one to use for this pattern, I’m just not quite sure what that other fabric might be yet.
Here’s how they look:
And that concludes my review of the Mood Brya Pants Pattern. I hope you’ve gleaned some helpful tips if you decide to make this pattern.
Happy New Year to all of you, and as always,
Take care and thanks for reading 🙂
Sewcoordinated 