Twinkle Star Hosh Pants

As a person from the UK, I do NOT feel comfortable calling these pants as opposed to trousers. Yet that is what this sewing pattern is called, so I'm going to suck it up for the duration of this post. When I showed these to Dolores her response was, 'twinkle star trousers!' Except, she says trousers like 'trou-zeez'. 

Pattern:

The Hosh pants pattern by LouBee Clothing was part of the Perfect Pattern Parcel #2, which was on sale for a limited period at the beginning of last year. I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in the blog tour to promote said pattern parcel, so I scored those patterns for free. I like all but one of those patterns, so I intend to get round to using most of them at some point. 

There are a couple of things that appealed to me about the Hosh pants pattern. Firstly, the pattern is designed to be made in woven fabric that has a stretch content (elastane/lycra). I felt that was pretty cool because usually kid's trouser patterns are designed for non-stretch wovens or straight-up knit fabric. The Hosh pants pattern therefore comes with the potential to stash-bust small pieces of stretchy wovens and refashion/reuse unwanted garments made from that type of of fabric. Oh, the options...

Secondly, this pattern has an adjustable waist. Children's garments made from woven fabric (even a stretchy woven like this) are never going to have the same lifespan as a knit garment. Yet the additional feature of an adjustable waist, therefore, goes some way to making them longer lasting. Hurrah! 

The pattern is graded from 12months to 6 years. Dolores has just turned two, so I cut the size 2 with the size 3 length. I had heard on the grapevine that Hosh pants come up a little short, plus I'm looking for maximum usage for my efforts. She's currently rocking these with small turn-ups (or just one turn-up when her dad is dressing her, according to these pictures) so I think that going for the extra length was the right move. 

Making them was really enjoyable. The instructions were nice and clear, and the new-to-me adjustable waist feature gave me a little lesson. I'm not thrilled about how that part has turned out though; the inside of the waistband gets pulled a bit where the elastic creates tension on the buttons (which you can see a bit in the image below). That means that they don't sit very flat against her body at those points, but I'm not sure what you could do to prevent that. Perhaps Dolores should eat more cake?

I had one reservation in that the curve of the back rise of the pattern didn't look particularly curvy, my concern being that there wouldn't be enough room to accommodate a nappied botty. Those concerns seem to be unfounded though.  I'll be interested to see how they fit when she is no longer in nappies though. 

Fabric:

The twinkle-star™ fabric came from a bag of fabric pieces kindly given to me by Gill from Vintage Rockchick blog. We met up to visit the A-MAZING Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A in London earlier this year. Gill is a member of the V&A and offered to get me in for sweet FA. I hope that she'll be pleased that some of her lovely little stash has seen some use. 

The fabric itself is a stretch denim with a ditsy white star print that kind of looks like polka dots until you get up close. The reverse of the fabric is an off-white,which makes the turn-ups look like a cool feature, and not just a necessity for garment longevity! There was a sufficient quantity for cutting out these trousers, plus an additional waistband piece when one of them mysteriously went missing. Not really a mystery though, considering how messy and chockablock my sewing corner is. 

Thoughts:

Aside from the bulky side sections where the elastic pulls at the inside waistband, I believe this garment is a WIN overall. I'm excited to have a successful pattern that requires stretch woven fabric. I have a number of bits in the stash that may now see the Hosh treatment. 

Cost:

Pattern: £0 (but it can be purchased here for £6.43)

Fabric: £0

Buttons: £0 (stash)

Adjustable elastic: 30p

Total: 30p! Not bad. You can't even find anything in a charity shop for 30p these days.