Coram Top and Lander Pant

This Coram Top and Lander Pant combo have been on my mind for the last few months, and I decided they were the perfect things to sew for my last Indiesew Blogger Team post of the year. I definitely need to make a cardigan to go with this outfit now that our temperatures are blow zero, but that will have to happen in the new year!

The Coram Top is an Allie Olson Pattern that is available at Indiesew. It comes in a top length and a dress length and it’s a loose-fitting, raglan style for woven fabrics. Over the Summer, I sewed two versions of the top since I was a tester for this pattern. I wore both of my tester tops a bunch with shorts when it was warm and I was excited to make one from this pretty Art Gallery rayon fabric. I made a size 8 graded to 12 at the high hip and raised the bust dart by 5/8″.

This fabric is very lightweight and is pretty shifty to cut and sew. This Coram top turned out a little looser than my tester versions and I think it’s just because of the difference of the weight and the weave of this fabric vs the rayon I used for my tester version. I love how it fits, except for some drooping that I got at the back neck.

I tried really hard not to stretch the neckband, and I even cut it an inch shorter than the pattern called for, but I still managed to stretch things out a bit. I think I could have fixed it by adjusting the back neck raglan seams, but since I’d topstitched all of the raglan seams to get sort of a faux-flat felled look, and attached the neckband, I decided that my hair could just cover it.

The top fits me so well everywhere else and I think it will look great worn untucked with skinny jeans or tucked into my new Lander pants.  The dophin hem also makes it perfect for my favorite half-tuck. I love the method that Allie used to attach the sleeve cuffs on this pattern. The raw edges are totally enclosed and the cuffs are topstitched into place. I love that they don’t flop around or require ironing to keep them in place each time I wear the top.

The Lander pant pattern is also available at Indiesew. I made a pair of Lander shorts at the end of the Summer and I have been wanting to make the pants ever since. I usually shy away from high waisted pants, but I really liked wearing my Lander shorts. True Bias patterns are so great for getting me out of my comfort zone and into something that makes me feel stylish and put together.

I got this Cone Mills denim from Blackbird fabrics and I thought it would be perfect for the Lander pattern. It’s non-stretch denim that is a cotton/modal blend. The Cone Mills denims are starched so when I first got this it was pretty stiff. I machine washed and dried it twice and it softened up so nicely. It’s exactly what I was hoping for when I saw there was modal in the fiber content.

I made a size 10 graded to a 14 in the Lander pants. It’s my goal in life to make pants that don’t have a million wrinkles/drag lines on the back leg. I think my answer might be to just make everything wide legged like these pants. I have some under butt wrinkles but none of the knee problems I always have. I know this is probably Lander pants blasphemy (haha!) but I also lowered the front rise by 1″. I really like when my pants are higher in the back and dip down in the front a little bit. Taking out an inch was perfect– they are still nice and high but hit me in a spot I like better.

The Lander pants are drafted for someone who is 5’5″ and I am 5’7.5″. I didn’t think about lengthening the pants until after I cut, but thank goodness the super deep 3″ hem allowance saved me. I wanted these to hit right above my ankle and I was able to keep them that length by taking a shallower hem.

I chose to topstitch these pants/jeans with navy topstitching thread. I started having major problems with skipped stitches again (I thought this was further evidence that my machine hates navy thread since I had this problem when I made my navy Kelly anorak.) At one point I tried the thread with a denim needle instead of a topstitching needle and all the problems disappeared. I was pretty surprised that the needle could have been the problem and not the thread! Since the topstitching was going much more smoothly I decided to topstitch these like jeans with bartacks on the pockets, topstitching down the outer leg ending with a bartack at the hip, and topstitching the inseam. Of course, none of it is visible since the thread is the same color as the denim, but I love the extra (invisible) details.

These two fabrics and patterns work so well together. I think this is the perfect outfit for a casual date night or a girls’ night out (I haven’t had one of those for an eternity– I need to find some girls and make it happen!) but I can also wear these for my everyday life. Now I’m off to raid my stash for the fabric to make a cardigan so I can wear this outfit all winter long…

~Teri

p.s. This post is sponsored by Indiesew since I am a member of their 2017 blogger team. All thoughts are my own.

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