Megan Nielsen Flint Trousers

Hey there folks. How are you doing? Well I hope. I have one of those rarely seen beasts for you today – a finished garment post! I’m skipping my most recently made garment straight to the top of the blogging pile because I love them a little bit and have worn them nearly every day this week. I took these photos after a full day at work, which is why they’re so wrinkled.

Though looking at these photos is making me realise that my waistband fluff up is more noticeable than I thought. I switched the buttonholes and buttons around so that my buttons were hidden but I didn’t put them in the right place and the end of the waistband flaps about a bit. I do plan to sew a snap on the end but I haven’t done it yet.

There, flaw pointed out. Let’s get back to business. As the title says, they’re Megan Nielsen Flint trousers (I can’t bring myself to call them pants, sorry). I don’t think I’m ever going to get on board with the cropped trouser trend so I lengthened these to full length. I’m a shorty so I didn’t have to add much – I added 3″ and sewed a 2″ hem, not 2.5″ as in the pattern. I possibly could have added a smidge more length/taken a smaller hem to make them a bit more feet hidey but I was worried about them dragging on the floor.

They’re made with a lightweight chambray I bought from Oh Sew Crafty, which has led to me referring to them as my “Summer jeans”. I feel like they just go with everything. I had lots of compliments on them at work and got told I looked like I should be strolling about on the French Riviera in them. I’ll take that.

They look a bit like my bum is eating them in this back view but they don’t feel like they give me a wedgie at all. I may scoop the back crotch a little on my next version though, just to check.

In terms of the sewing everything went fine. I mostly followed the instructions but I did the waistband slightly differently. The instructions have you sew the waistband on (to the right side side) and then you have to press the inner seam allowance up before topstitching from the front to secure it. Instead I pressed the seam allowance up first (1/2″ instead of the 5/8″ in the pattern) without realising that it mattered which edge I pressed because of the notches being asymmetrical. So to make my notches match I had to sew the waist band to the wrong side, which I think I actually prefer because you know that you’re catching it all when you topstitch. I always have iffy bits when I stitch from the right side and hope that none of the seam allowance has escaped on the wrong side.

The details

Pattern: Megan Nielsen Flint shorts and pants

PDF or Printed: PDF

How many pages: 51

A0 file included? Yes, 3 pages.

How’s the PDF?

I got the A0 file printed so I can’t comment on how easy the tiled version is to assemble. The A0 version was fine but one whole page is taken up with un-nested waistbands for all sizes. If I was printing it again I think I’d be temped to skip that page and figure out which pages of the tiled version I needed to print for my size.

Measurements: Waist: 32″ Hips: 42″ Height: 5’2″

Size made: Large

Alterations:

• Lengthened by 3″ to make full length trousers
• Shortened the back rise by about an inch at the centre back, tapering to nothing at the side seams.
• I also took the side seams and centre back in but I think that was because the waist had stretched out when I tried them on as the waistband still matched up in all the right places so I won’t adjust my pattern.
• I swapped the buttons and buttonholes around (badly…)

Fabric used: 2m of 150cm wide cotton chambray from Oh Sew Crafty

Another version?

Yes I think so. Maybe a black or navy linen pair.

Any changes next time?

Yes. I’ll try a curved waistband instead of the straight one. I’m also toying with putting a fly front on them. That would kind of take away one of the selling points of the trousers but I actually enjoy sewing a fly zip.

Any tips or advice

Watch out for the waist stretching out. And if you do hidden buttons do a better job than I did.

Non-clueless versions:

• Fiona’s gorgeous version makes me consider giving the cropped length a go
• Jasika has made three gorgeous pairs
• I love Beck’s full length Flints (and her cropped pair)

Final Thoughts

I love my Flint pants (gag) and I think they’ve given me a bit of trouser sewing confidence. No crotch weirdness! That’s probably because of the fairly loose fit but it did make me wonder if I should give Megan Nielsen’s Ash jeans a go. Maybe this will be the year that I crack trousers!