Yup…I’m pregnant! My husband and I are expecting a little boy, due two days before our first wedding anniversary in August! Since I’m tall, long in the waist, and its my first pregnancy I don’t have much of a bump at this point (my doctor said not to expect much of one until around 23-26 weeks), but my waist has thickened quite a bit (3-4″ larger than before I got pregnant) and while they are still big on me, maternity pants feel far more comfortable right now.

Background

The Style Arc Andy is a slim leg maternity pants pattern…basically the maternity version of the Style Arc Elle. They are the type of maternity pants that go over the belly and have a stretchy waistband panel. Almost like a built-in belly band.

I struggled a lot during my first trimester, and all I could do was focus on basic survival. I spent sooo much time in bed feeling awful. If I didn’t know I was pregnant I would be convinced that I was terminally ill. Some women seem to love pregnancy and just breeze right through it. I am not one of those women. You could not pay me enough to be a surrogate. Unisom + B6 helped a lot with the motion sickness and nausea, but I still felt terrible. I have no idea how some women successfully hide it from everyone for months, because I looked and felt like such a wreck I had to disclose to a few people at my job very early on. Of course numerous older women in my life would take one look at me and accurately guess right away what was going on!

Due to the hormones, inactivity from feeling so exhausted/weak/dizzy, and eating way too many carbs every 2-3 hours because of food aversions and nausea, I gained 10-15 pounds during my first trimester. (I never realized just how active I was before!) Very little of my original wardrobe was suitable at this point. I have never had an easy time buying RTW pants but I was so exhausted and bloated and needed something to wear to work and out in public. I ended up buying and then returning a ton of RTW because most of what I bought fit really badly, making me feel even more frumpy and awkward. It seems that 99% of pregnancy-friendly “pants” are just leggings and sweatpants, and I really wanted pants that looked like regular pants. Once I was in my second trimester and starting having some almost-normal days again I started working on getting back my strength and making plans for sewing again! I still haven’t gotten that second trimester “burst of energy” they talk about, but life is definitely starting to feel a bit easier and more “normal” again. I feel fortunate that I was able to easily conceive and everything looks good so far (despite being considered high risk due to “advanced maternal age” and “elderly primigravida”). He’s bouncing around in there like a happy little puppy, completely oblivious to all the chaos he’s causing!

Materials

The fabric I used for the pants was a navy viscose double knit/ponte from Gorgeous Fabrics that’s been sitting in my stash since 2016. The pattern description says it is for stretch wovens, but ponte is structured enough to work as well. In my opinion the slight vertical stretch makes it work even better.

For the waistband I used a nylon/lycra activewear knit from Fabric Mart, purchased way back in 2015.

These pants are extremely wash and wear friendly. One of the best things about making your own clothing is you can treat the fabric thoroughly before sewing with it. I washed on warm and dried on high to get rid of as much shrinkage as possible, and the fabric is no worse for the wear. SO much of my RTW ends up shrinking despite carefully following the care instructions…one pair of pants from Amazon seemed to fit ok, then shrunk 2-3″ in the length after being washed on cold! I’ve found this problem has gotten significantly worse since the pandemic. Maybe manufacturers are taking more shortcuts now.

For the waistband elastic I used a 5/8″ wide black buttonhole elastic from Cleaner’s Supply, along with a 3/8″ navy button.

My husband noticed that the fabrics don’t match in color (the waistband is lighter than the pants) but this seems very common in RTW maternity pants. These maternity pants are over $200 and they have a very different color waistband. My shirts will cover it anyway. I’m just thrilled to have something that is machine washable, long enough, good quality, and will still fit in a couple of months…and they cost me only $26 to make. The only $30 and under maternity pants I’ve found online are either polyester or leggings, and none of them come in tall sizes either.

Fit

Fitting adjustments were as follows:

• I used a size 14 for the waist/back yoke, then tapered out to a size 16 at the hip/thigh/leg
• Removed 3/8″ length from the upper part of the front crotch curve
• Added 1/2″ to the upper back crotch curve
• Added 2″ width to the leg opening, making these more of a slim straight leg rather than a true slim leg
• Added 1.5″ to the length. Due to the vertical as well as horizontal stretch of my fabric, I ended up removing 1.25″ after hemming and left them a tiny bit on the long side just in case if there’s any future shrinkage. Yet when I compared them to the paper pants pattern after sewing, they were still a bit longer. I think the fabric relaxed a bit during construction.

You probably noticed from the photos that waistband is rather loose at this point, and the back waist is definitely a bit baggy, but I’m reluctant to mess with it as I am sure I will be filling it out in the not so distant future.

Construction

I made this entirely on my sewing machine, and then hemmed them using my coverstitch machine.

I chose to go with the buttonhole elastic option for the waistband. I am not entirely happy with it as it is soft so it tends to roll when taking the pants on and off, but at the same time I like how it is going to allow for plenty of adjustment as my body continues to grow. When I sewed the buttonholes in the inner back waistband I used a lightweight cut-away stabilizer on the wrong side of the fabric and trimmed it away afterward. It worked out great! When making the waistband elastic casing I traced a line 5/8″ away from the folded edge of the fabric with chalk, then used a 3.5mm length and 2.5mm width zigzag stitch to create the casing, making sure the edge of the zigzag stitch just hit the chalk marking. I went with a zigzag instead of a cover stitch because despite my waist getting much thicker I’m still pear shaped and wanted the extra stretch for getting over my hips and thighs. A cover stitch stretches, but a zigzag gives more durability and stretchiness.

I found there’s one mistake with this pattern. The front crotch curve has only a 1/4″ seam allowance, but every other seam allowance on this pattern is 3/8″. Not a big deal to fix, but just something to be aware of.

This pattern has a faux fly. I did a double line of topstitching for the fly, and then a single line of topstitching 1/8″ away from the edge for the front and back crotch curve. I topstitched 1/4″ away from the edge for both the upper edge of the yoke and the outer side seams. (I pushed the seam allowance towards the front when I topstitched the outer side seams, instead of to the back. This helped with some of the bulk created by the back yoke). The topstitching at the outer side seam helped make sure those side seams stay very flat and in place.

When I attached the waistband to the pants I used a 4.0mm length and 2.5mm width zigzag stitch. I pushed the seam allowance up towards the lycra and topstitched in place fairly close to the seam line, again using a 4.0mm length and 2.5mm width zigzag stitch. Then I trimmed the seam allowance after stitching.

Conclusion

I LOVE THESE PANTS. I’ve got two more pairs in black ponte cut out and ready to sew. They’re a cinch to make and I feel so much better having them to wear. They’re slim without being tight and pair well with looser fitting untucked dress shirts (my go-to work style right now). There’s so few modern maternity pants patterns on the market, and I am so grateful to Style Arc for offering this pattern. Highly recommend it to the other pregnant ladies out there!