Finished - the Shar Pei pants

How intriguing! Shar Pei pants! Sadly, this latest make has been a little disappointing. I'd seen this gorgeous stretch brocade at Darn Cheap, in an amazing black and silver lace pattern (which from a distance actually looked a little snake-skin-esque) and immediately saw myself in some awesome Elle pants in this slightly rock'n'roll fabric.

As regular visitors to Chez Tragic will know, I am a devotee of the Style Arc Elle pant, and have had great results with all versions up until now. The pattern calls for a stretch woven, with at least 25% sideways stretch. Bengaline is the ideal fabric but it also works fabulously with ponte.

But this fabric is WEIRD. It's super stretchy, and a whole lot of synthetic from memory (which to be honest is the same as bengaline and a lot of pontes going around it seems), but it creates these weird awful AWFUL folds on the backs of my thighs and knees. The front, not so much.....

But the back..... WTF?

These wrinkles form and just sit there in deep horizontal folds, making me look like I've got a super glamorous version of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. All the reading I've done on horizontal wrinkles say that it means they are too tight, but this doesn't really make sense to me with these pants, as they are definitely not skin tight especially around the backs of my knees.  I was actually wondering if they were too loose, so I quickly went up the outer seam on one leg with a basting stitch to narrow it slightly, and I think it made a slight difference. I'm not sure what to do. Maybe there's nothing I can do. My mum thinks its the fabric and she could well be right. It's really not the nicest to wear and I wonder if the fact it's so heavily woven (it is a true brocade) just makes it sit weirdly.

Horizontal leg folds cute on him. Not so much on me.

Anyway if anyone has any thoughts or opinions on what maybe happening here I'd love to know. I can't let them out as the Style Arc seam allowances are only 3/8 inch and I've already finished the seams (and this fabric is almost impossible to unpick!). Should I take them in even more and see what happens or just (as my mum suggests) wear them around the house as uber-glam Stretchy Wear?

BTW I'm wearing them with a new Burda Dolman Sleeve tee, made up in a lovely faded drapey black wool pointelle from the Clear It store. As you can see from the pics I've made the neckline a little too wide, but I've already been wearing it a heap. I've made this pattern up so many times now, I've lost count....

Narrowing the neckline has been an easy fix - I've just stitched across the edge of the neck opening at a deeper angle, tapering to the normal shoulder seam which has narrowed the opening, and therefore tightened the slightly sloppy appearance:

It's such lovely fabric - I'm pretty sure it was another Alannah Hill wool for maybe $10m, and there was acres of it there. I'm heading back to get some more for cardi making - thanks heaps everyone for the recent cardi feedback and suggestions!