I sewed my first garment, a pair of Lane Pants by Syd Graham, in October 2025. I was happy enough with the construction, but I definitely did not pick the right fabric for my first project. These turned out a bit too drapey for my taste and definitely have big pajama energy.

This time I’m making the cargo pocket version with a cotton twill fabric to hopefully achieve the look I’m after. My plan is to take a few inches off the bottom to be more ankle length as well.

Making these pants the second time around has been much easier, especially now that I have my serger up and running.

Sidenote – I actually cut these pattern pieces out about a month ago, then started what I assumed would be the easiest part of the project – the drawstring. Unfortunately I couldn’t have been more wrong about that. After folding the strip of fabric in half and sewing it together, I spent hours trying to flip it right side out. Sydney’s youtube tutorial does say that if your material is too thick, it might not work. I considered just skipping the drawstring all together, but I really wanted to practice using the buttonhole function on my machine.. Plus, a cargo pant without a drawstring… Sounds wrong!

This time I increased the width of the drawstring by about 1/4″ and was able to make it work. It’s definitely not pretty though!

Next, I sewed the buttonholes and attached the waistband, then I ran out of thread.

While I was waiting on my new thread to arrive, I serged the seam allowance of the waistband and didn’t notice a major mistake I made until several days later. I used the seam ripper to release the fold, but ended up with about a 2″ hole where the serger cut the fabric.

I bought this patch to cover the hole, but ended up adding a scrap piece of fabric to the inside of the pants and zig zag stitched over it a couple of times and called it a day.

Once the pants were hemmed, the pattern is technically complete. I’m still debating adding back pockets, but that’s all for now!

Note: This is the last time I’ll be sewing the Lane pants without any mods. If I make them again I’ll consider some changes, particularly to the lower back/upper seat area where there is a lot of bulk.

Pattern: Lane Pants by Syd Graham Patterns
Fabric: Lived in Cotton Twill (Umber) from Blackbird Fabrics
Thread: Gutermann Sew-All Espresso #587
Size Made: 6