Silky-Satin Pants

First off, two exciting things, 1) I sewed satin for the first time and 2) this post features a "guest photographer" - not my mom or dad!I've wanted a pair of neutral colored silk pants--it's been popping up everywhere. One of my favorite silk outfits that I've seen was on R&B artist Jhene Aiko in an all-silk look. (Some of my favorite songs of hers are: Bed Peace, The Worst, Selfish, and her TWENTY88 songs.)Making the pants:  I used the Burda 6636 pattern and  made a lot of adjustments. No seam down the center front and back of each pant leg. I wanted the pants to be a little less fitted, so I made the seam allowance 1/4" instead of 5/8". Instead of placing a zipper, I closed the center seam and put elastic around the waist. I increased the front and back waistband's width so I could have a casing for 1 inch elastic.I used silk in the dress in my last post and it was pretty expensive--so I couldn't afford another silk piece. So I went with satin instead for the pants. Biggest lesson: SEWING SATIN CAN BE SUCH A PAIN! WHY? THE PUCKERING! I was hella eager to sew both pant legs fast, but when I looked at my seams...there was so much puckering! I wasn't sure what to do at first, but I definitely did not want to take out all the stitching. I figured if I busted the side seams it would come out clean. (When I had overlocked the seams, I overlocked them together instead of apart.) When I took out the overlocked stitches and busted the seams open...it worked!But there was more drama with these pants. An hour before the shoot, I tried on the original look I had planned and wasn't feeling it. I had made the satin pants floor length and wore it with a black velvet tank top and an oversized grey grandpa-looking cardigan. It seemed too "business-y"--not me. Since I'd seen a lot of wide-legged pants styled with sneakers lately (street style), I thought about going in that direction instead. It was a risky move right before the shoot, but I hemmed the pants 5 inches to make them ankle length. It turned out better than I expected! I styled the pants with a NAS shirt (from his concert last year), a striped turtleneck (from h&m--layering with this turtleneck has been one of my favorite things to do lately), and stan smiths.   Because of my last minute styling change, I had to push back the shoot another 30 mins. My friends Branden, aka "the guest photographer" and Maya (who modeled for "Eleanor: Turtle Neck") were cool with the delay.We walked around to town looking for locations. Both Maya and Branden both have great eyes and pointed out interesting places to shoot. They came up with interesting scenarios, like the one of me camouflaged in bamboo. But it was much harder to keep a straight face when a friend is taking the pictures, but I think the photos came out really nice. Branden's a pretty talented guy. Check out his work here:Branden's ig: @iwantgrailsBranden's website: http://www.iwantgrails.com/love,laur