I decided to take the Monpei idea further and create a “pants” pattern from it – two rectangles – one each for the leg front and leg back. Instead of the triangular gusset I grafted the crotch triangles onto the rectangles (10 1/2″ x 40″), curved the crotch additions using a French curve, raised the centre back by 1″, took the centre back in by 1 1/4″. I also added “jeans” pockets. The waist I finished with a facing and elastic at the top.

At some point in the past I had bought this Sandwashed Cupro Blend fabric online from Blackbird Fabrics.

Cupro is a ‘regenerated cellulose’ fabric made from cotton waste. It is made using the teeny tiny silky cotton fibres, known as linter, that stick out of the cottonseed and are too small to spin. The linter is dissolved into a cuprammonium solution, which is a mixture of copper and ammonium, dropped into caustic soda, then spun into fibre. Much like Tencel and Modal, cupro is a plant-based material that is chemically processed to produce the resulting fabric.

Cupro is said to have all the positive qualities of silk: it’s silky-smooth and drapes just like the luxurious material. 

https://goodonyou.eco/what-is-cupro-fabric/

Not the most flattering photo but I wanted to show more of the top of the pants and how they fit – I tucked in the t-Shirt. The pants fit rather well both front and back.

The finished pants hang/drape quite well – no pulling at the front crotch, the side seam is straight, the back hangs nicely from the bum. I purposely hadn’t pressed the centre front/centre back to allow the drapey fabric to fall where it wanted. However, it turns out there is absolutely no give to the cupro fabric so when I sat in the pants they pulled tightly across my lap and wrinkled a lot.

This is, after all, just another experiment – I’ve ended up with a wearable muslin (although I can only wear the pants one day then they have to be washed – pressing alone doesn’t eliminate the wrinkles).

So how do I change the pattern to reduce that amount of wrinkling? Obviously by adding a bit of fabric across the front. That’s what I plan on doing next – I will add 3/4″ to the body portion of each side seam, along with a fly front as well as shaping the side seams so the top fits without elastic (although I may still want/need elastic in the back).

I’ve already pulled from my stash a piece of rayon I bought in Bali in 2014. It’s another drapey fabric which should result in a comfortable loose-ish garment. What I’m aiming to accomplish is a reasonable fit so I can make corduroy and wool (yes I have several gorgeous lengths of flannel I bought at Britex in San Francisco in 2015!) pants for winter.

On to the next experiment.