Made by a Fabricista: Lander Pants and Kalle Shirt

Oh my goodness...it's summer! What does summer mean for you and your family? Summer is one of our busiest times of the year. Kids are gearing up for camps (each of mine have at least two camps) and this year I am too! I'm headed off to my first ever summer camp to help be an adult leader with the middle school girls...wish me luck! I'm sitting down to write this the night before we head out bright and early. I am so excited to share my two newest makes...a new pair of Lander Pants and a Kalle Shirt.

I have made the Lander Pants pattern so many times and I still absolutely love this pattern! Maybe you remember the linen pair I shared over here on the Fabric Mart Blog! This time I wanted my Lander Pants to look a little more like jeans. I grabbed some denim fabric from Fabric Mart (it's no longer in stock, but look around and see what other denim they have). The denim I sewed these Landers with have 0 stretch and are 100% cotton. The fabric is pretty stiff and rigid, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

You may be looking at these pants and thinking they look a little different than the Landers you have seen. I made a handful of changes. First, I created a scooped front pocket by laying my Ginger Jeans pattern piece right on top of the Lander Pattern. I also used the pocket bag patterns pieces from the Ginger Jeans. The next big change was the button fly. I polled the family on what they thought I should do, button fly or zipper, and the vote was unanimous, zipper. I used the Lander Pant zipper expansion for the zipper pattern.

Onto the next change, the back pockets. I used the back pocket pattern piece from the Ginger Jeans to give these Landers a true jeans look. The last change I made was the waistband. The Lander Pants Pattern comes with a straight waistband, and I wanted a curved waistband to fit a little more snuggly. Again, I used the Ginger Jeans waistband pattern. Maybe I should be calling these the Lander Ginger mashup!

These Lander Pants turned out exactly how I had hoped! I'm not the trediest dresser, so these cropped wide leg jeans feel like I am stepping a little outside my comfort zone, but I love them! It's kind of fun to try new styles, and what better way to do it than when you are sewing!

Want to hear a bit about the Kalle Shirt? This pattern comes with so many options, which I love! This is a mix between a few different views. View A is a cropped view, which I have sewed before and it's a little too cropped for me. Instead, I used the length of the back pattern piece of view A and lengthened the front to match! I then used the curved hem (finished with bias binding) from view B. View A is finished with a facing and I love that, but it didn't work with the full button placket I was wanting.

That's it for the Kalle Shirt! Alright, I better run back and finish packing for summer camp! I hope your summer is off to a great start. Below I have a quick little recap so you can easily find the patterns, fabric and modifications I made!

Quick Recap

Pattern: Lander Pants

Fabric: denim from Fabric Mart (no longer in stock)

Modifications: I used so many pattern pieces from Ginger Jeans, front pockets, back pockets, waistband. Also used the lander pants zipper expansion pattern.

Pattern: Kalle Shirtdress

Fabric: cotton shirting from Fabric Mart

Modifications: I combined view A and B, lengthening the front pattern piece of view A to match the length of the back. I used the hem finish of view B.

Thank you so much Fabric Mart for the great fabrics! Teresa

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