Essex Linen Rose Pants
UPDATE: The Rose sewing pattern is now available!
When I announced late last summer that we would make a pants pattern, we were in the very early stages of the pattern development. I decided I wanted to be as transparent about the process as possible, since I think most people don't realize just how long it takes to take a pattern from concept to launch. I thought maybe every few weeks I could hop on the ol' blog and post a little status update. ISN'T THAT HILARIOUS?
I didn't realize then how hard it would be to post communications on a regular basis on what was happening with this pattern. If you had called me up on the phone at any given point I could easily have told you what we were doing -- it's not a big secret -- but it turns out that the work of developing a pattern, running a business, and also attempting to be a present mama of three is quite enough for one person, at least it is for me, let alone try to send out Rose updates to the blog and newsletter on top of all that. It does seem rather obvious as I type it out.
At any rate, the last time I posted an update on Rose, we had graded the pattern into nine sizes, and I was just beginning to sketch diagrams and write instructions. Fast forward to this week: we've completed one round of testing and are nearly finished with Round 2 with a smaller group to test out the small set of tweaks we made after Round 1. Elli has digitized most of the diagrams, we've written and edited the instructions, and Karen graded the pattern with an additional two sizes (up to a 59" hip). Though we don't have an exact launch date, I am hopeful that it will be some time in April, as these will definitely be a fantastic pattern for spring and summer.
Essex linen rose pants / made by rae
With that in mind, I thought I'd post pics of this latest pair of Rose Pants that I've made for myself, made with Essex linen by Robert Kaufman. This particular fabric is from Carolyn Friedlander's Polk line (Carolyn wrote this post showing many of the fabrics in the line sewn up into garments). I love this print and we'll see how wrinkly these get (as they are 100% linen), though as a mama of three I don't much care much about wrinkles nor do I have the time or inclination to iron anything once it's sewn (I do press like a maniac as I sew, just not once it's finished). The Internet Wrinkle Police will just have to live with that (you think I am joking but I have received so many snarky comments over wrinkles in photos. You would not even believe how many folks there are out there who think it's their business to weigh in on wrinkles).
Here's a closeup of the fabric, as the print is a bit hard to see in some of my pics here (I took a few of these with my phone on a cloudy day and I think my 8S has a crappier camera than the 6S I had before).
Rose pants closeup
This is the "cropped" view of the pattern, which also has a full length and shorts option. I hope you're as excited as I am for this pattern -- we've had some great tester versions (that you can see a number of these already on Instagram under #mbrrose if you want a peek) that we'll be sure to post here as the launch gets closer.
Get the Rose sewing pattern PDF in my shop!
Meanwhile, I'm on spring vacation with the family in Seattle this week visiting my parents. We're going to go to the Space Needle (a request from Elliot, who turned 12 (!!!) yesterday) and visit Bainbridge Island this week; should be fun!