Wholecloth: Ladder Stripe Lou Box Top & Wide Leg Pants

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Ladder Stripe Lou Box Top & Wide Leg Pants

Since moving early last summer, I have collected quite a stash of uncut yardage purchased with big plans and the best intentions, but no actual time to sew. (There's no better way to quantify a fabric hoarding problem than to move!) This fall I'm determined to work through that guilty pile with a little something to refresh my fall wardrobe. These are my go-to self-drafted pants, and my very favorite pattern to hack, the Lou Box Top from Sew DIY.

The pants are my standard wide leg pants pattern that I drafted a few years ago. I am so heavily invested in this style (current count - 6), can we all please agree that they will never go out of style?! I used the medium weight Tencel Twill II from Blackbird Fabrics for this version. This Camel color is sold out, but I'm also loving Penny. I wanted something a bit more substantial for fall than my linen versions, but with a drape that doesn't stifle the width. This fabric is so swishy and soft I'm tempted to make a pair in every color!

I saw a top similar to this one somewhere on the internet, and I've had it tucked into a dusty little corner of my brain ever since. The Lou Box Top is basically two pieces, a front and a back. I cut each piece parallel to the center line about 2 inches from the neck opening. Then added a seam allowance to each side of the cut. I cut the outer piece parallel to the grain of the fabric, and the center piece perpendicular to the grain to create this ladder stripe pattern. To make the button back I added 2" to the center back. I used a 1" strip of fusible interfacing 1/2" from the raw edge of the center back pieces for the button placket. Then turned a 1/2" fold, then a 1" fold one each side of the back. Then stitched as close to the fold as I could to sew down the placket. I was torn as to weather I should match the buttons/holes to the stripe pattern but in the end decided that made the buttons either awkwardly close, or awkwardly far apart so I just spaced them 3". You'll find a few images for how-to make the hack at the end of this post.

The fabric is a yarn dyed cotton linen stripe from Fabric.com*. It's the perfect weight for an unstructured top, but it is a tad see through on the white stripes. I was careful to position a thick blue stripe across my bust line.