Persephone Pants by Anna Allen

Apr 3

Apr 3 Persephone Pants by Anna Allen

After seeing so many amazing pairs of Persephone Pants by Anna Allen in my Instagram feed over the last year, I decided it was about time I made my own. I have only made a few pairs of pants in the past, including the Ultimate Trousers (on the easier end of the scale) and some pleated culottes (more difficult). The Persephone Pants are definitely the most complicated in terms of detail but I was surprised by how simple the instructions were to follow.

When I took my measurements, I was in between the US sizes 4 and 6 (UK 8 and 10). These pants are unusual in that they don’t have a side seam so getting them to fit isn’t as simple as just taking in a seam. The instructions suggested going for the larger size if you fall somewhere between sizes so I decided to play it safe and cut the US 6. My hips are usually a dress size larger than my waist so I opted to put large darts in the waistline, which seemed like it would work while I was sewing and fitting the pants. Unfortunately, after I completed the pants I found they were looser at the waist than I had expected. I shifted the buttons slightly which helped but in hindsight, I think I could have made the size 4 and just increased the hip width slightly when I was tracing the pattern.

I’m most impressed by all of the top stitching that I sewed on these pants. I don’t think I’ve previously made anything that required this much topstitching but it really does look nice when it’s done. I also managed to keep the stitching fairly straight despite not having clear guides on my machine for inches. If there’s one choice I’m really glad I made, it was to not use the metal jeans buttons that I originally bought for the fly. I had thought they would look nice and professional but given I ended up moving the buttons anyway, it would have been really annoying if they were hammered in!

The waistband is also super satisfying, tucking away all of the seams. This is probably also the first time that I’ve made anything with belt loops. I did slightly misread the instructions for the belt loops and cut all of the individual loops before stitching down the length of the belt loop fabric but this didn’t cause any issues other than making the process take slightly longer.