Wiksten Shift Top and Free Range Slacks

Hi friends! How are you? I am having such a hard time believing that it is September and fall is on the horizon. Before they’re somewhat seasonally inappropriate, I wanted to show off two of my favorite pieces I made this Summer! I actually didn’t intend to wear these together when I sewed them, but I love this 100% linen combination.

I am wearing the Wiksten Shift top and the Free Range slacks from Sew House Seven. These are both patterns that grabbed me the instant they were released.  I love the different views available in both patterns and both of them fit into the loose, comfortable, but put together vibe that I’m going for these days.

This is my second pair of Free Range slacks. (The first pair I made, in the cropped wide leg view, is here on the Imagine Gnats blog.) It took me about 5 minutes after finishing my first pair to know that I had to try the tapered leg view.

With this pattern in mind, I bought this avocado linen at Joann in a door buster sale that took the price from $21.99 a yard down to about $8 a yard. The color doesn’t look like much on their website but it is such a pretty green!

I really love the details on the Free Range slacks pattern. The front pockets are made from a single layer of fabric stitched to the leg of the pants. This keeps the pants from having extra bulk around the hip area and feels really streamlined. The pockets are so deep and I just can’t keep my hands out of them.

The slacks also have a cool side panel that is fun to sew. (It’s also a great chance to do some stripe play if you’re using a striped fabric. I did this on my third pair of Free Range slacks, which I’ll show you later!) I added the back patch pockets to this pair, too. The back pockets have a cool shape and they are sewn right into the side panel.

I cut the same size for this pair as I did for my first pair, a size 12 graded to between a 14 and 16 at the hips. I had to make a few adjustments to the crotch on my first pair, and I made similar adjustments to this green pair. I lowered the rise 1/2″ all around on these, and then lowered the front rise 1.25″. I also reduced the front crotch length by .25″.

Recently, I found a great blog post with some common pants fitting adjustments and it shows the way that I lower the front rise, if you’re curious. It’s here and the heading “shorten rise” shows the exact way I do my adjustment. I do a slash and overlap midway across the rise of the pants, which works really well for me.

The fit of the tapered leg Free Range slacks is just as great as the wide leg view! The linen fabric tends to relax quite a bit as I wear them but I don’t mind a bit. They just get more comfortable as the day progresses. This is a great pattern and I’d highly recommend it!

It took me a little while longer to get to my first Wiksten shift (in Instagram sewing time.) It was first released as a paper pattern only and I wanted to hold out for the pdf pattern. I am not a fan of tracing my patterns. I’m definitely team cut! Plus, spending $20 on a pattern is a hard pill for me to swallow, honestly.

The pattern was eventually released as a pdf, and I eventually bought it. I’d gotten this striped linen from Blackbird last Summer, I think, but it could have been the Summer before that. I had planned to make some sort of button up shirt with it and I’m totally glad I never got to it.

This fabric is lightweight and it was really well suited to the Wiksten shift pattern. I love the boxy fit and how I got to play around with the stripe direction of the fabric a bit. I opted to make the back of the top using the pieces for the dress view because I just loved that yoke with the gathered bodice.

There is a lot of ease included in the pattern and I’ve seen that lots of other sewists have sized down when they’ve made their shifts. I stuck with the size that my measurements put me into (a 10 at the bust, graded only to a 12 since it’s cropped.) I lowered the armholes 1/4″ since my upper arms are full and I didn’t want them to be squeezed.

I love the fullness of this top and I don’t plan on changing a thing when I revisit this pattern. The cropped length helps to balance out the width, I think. It has been on repeat with my linen shorts all Summer long. It will be great with jeans or pants in the Fall, too.

I definitely can’t wait to get time to make the Shift in dress length and a version of the top with the sleeves included in the pattern. The dark green linen 3/4 sleeved top in the pattern listing is calling out to me to recreate it!

~Teri