From sample pants to Studio Pants: how a pattern is refined

The Studio Pants started because we were working on a pants pattern and had fabrics we wanted to use. We could have made another sample in muslin. Instead, we reached for some of the vintage and one-off cloth we'd been collecting, and each adjustment became a real pair of little pants.

Now that the shape is where we want it, we're keeping that part of the process. The Dark Stripe Studio Pants tell the beginning of the story: an elastic waist, room for everyday kid life, made in a very small quantity in our San Francisco studio.

The sample lets you see the pattern

A flat sewing pattern is a set of pieces and instructions for how they join. With pants, the rise, leg, waistband and hem all affect each other. Once those pieces become cloth, you can see the shape in a way you can't quite see it on paper.

The fabric has a say too. A stripe brings alignment into the picture. A large print asks you to notice where the image will land. Different cloth sits differently, even when you begin with the same pattern. Using the fabrics we had collected made that part of sampling much more interesting.

Then the next fabric changes the pair

Country Patchwork has a blue printed mix of stripes and country scenes. The patchwork is in the print itself, rather than a cloth assembled from leftover squares. Little Piggies puts pink characters against teal-blue. The same general shape gives those two fabrics very different personalities.

With Sheet Music, the surface is overlapping pages in black and cream. Woodland Floral has red and cream flowers, berries and curling leaves on dark green. Cutting into either print changes what you see on each leg and at each seam.

There is only so much of a particular found fabric. That affects the run we can make and the sizes it can include. It's part of why these releases keep changing, instead of becoming a fixed range of every print in every size.

A familiar shape is useful underneath all that

The elastic waist and roomy cut give the prints an everyday place to go. Construction Crew might be the pair that catches a child's eye; someone else may want flowers or stripes. Put them with a top they already wear and the outfit can stay simple.

For a finished pair, use its own listing for size and fabric information, and keep its care details. Sharing a pattern doesn't make every fabric the same. Our one-of-a-kind clothing guide explains what to look for in the photographs and measurements.

If you want to see how the pieces come together

The elastic-waist pants walkthrough introduces the construction sequence. At Little Pants Club, you can make a pair with us in the studio. There's something very satisfying about recognizing how a flat piece of fabric became the clothes in your hands.