How to | Sew a Luxury Loungewear Set using the Hudson Pants and Jarrah Sweatshirt patterns…

I love a good loungewear set, it doesn’t take me long after walking in the door to change into something super cosy to sit and watch the tv in the evening, so this is one I’m really excited to share with you all.

Back in autumn, over on YouTube, I made a video listing three high street looks I wanted to recreate for autumn/winter and one was a luxury loungewear set inspired by one similar to this Cashmere set from Debenhams. (My original inspiration was from The White Company but I can’t find that set anymore sadly). You can watch this video here and see what other looks I picked if you’d like to.

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To recreate my own loungewear set (or jogging suit as we used to call them back in the day – far less glam!) I planned to use my much loved Jarrah Sweater pattern by Megan Nielsen for the top and the Hudson Pants pattern by True Bias for the bottoms. After all I’d had the Hudson Pants in my pattern stash since last January so it was about time I finally got around to trying them out.

Since I wanted this set to be ‘luxury’ I wanted some super soft and cosy fabric to make it with. I’d had my eye on this Mind the Maker Cashmere blend sweatshirt fabric for a long time but since it is definitely on the ‘ahem’ pricey side, I wanted to wait until I could get a good deal on it. Here’s where being a Minerva Craft Club member comes in super handy, they run Craft Club VIP days twice a year where members can get up to 20-30% discount on fabrics. I tend to keep a little list of my more spendy fabrics in my Minerva profile so that when these days come around I can justifiably buy some of them at a good discount 😉 You can sign up to the Minerva Craft Club here if you’d like to.

So when the time came for me to invest in this beauty of a fabric I decided to go for the grape colour way. It’s a little different to my go to grey or navy and I really loved the colour. I also bought the matching ribbing to use on my Jarrah because I thought that would look nice. Mind the Maker have matching ribbings in most of their sweatshirt fabrics which I think is brilliant.

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Since I’d not made the Hudson Pants before I did hesitate a little and um and ah about whether to shorten them for a while before starting. At 5’ 3” it’s pretty much given that I’ll need it to shorten everything and looking at the finished garment measurements I was all set to take an inch out of the length BUT after cutting out my pattern pieces and thinking they looked a reasonable length on me as they were, I decided not to shorten straight away. Instead, I made up the legs as they were (with no change to the length) and tried them on before adding the cuffs. Since the cuffs are quite high I could always take some height out of those if necessary and shorten the leg length that way.

It might be worth noting that I also measured the leg pattern up against a ready to wear pair of joggers that I love too and the length matched perfectly so that’s another reason why I decided not to shorten too quickly.

I sewed up my joggers to the point of adding the cuffs, tried them on and found that they were actually the perfect length. I also ended up adding the cuffs as they were, without shortening and found all to be well.  I’m still a little confused as to how this happened but I’m pleased that no altering was necessary after all. I’m also glad that I wasn’t too quick to assume I’d need to shorten either 🙂

I should say here that I think it depends how you want your joggers to look. I don’t mind a little extra length since I didn’t want the legs riding up too much when sitting down so I was happy with them as they were. You might feel they still look a little long in the pictures below. I think it’s all about comfort and how you want to feel in your finished joggers.

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So after all that trying on and checking, all that was left to do was to add the 2” elastic to the waistband, which I had to wait a couple of days for since I didn’t have any wide enough in my stash, (I had underestimated quite how wide 2” is)!  Luckily Amazon Prime came to the rescue and I didn’t have to wait too long for mine to arrive.  I’ve linked the elastic I’ve used here incase that’s helpful.

So whilst waiting for my elastic to arrive I got on with my Jarrah.  I won’t go into too much detail about the making process here because you’ve probably heard me talk about it before but on this version, I did lengthen the body of the sweater by 1 inch.  This was because I wanted to wear it primarily with these Hudson pants which are quite low rise.  The Jarrah can come up a little cropped with some waistlines so I didn’t want any chilly tummy situations going on. I actually really like the added length and might keep that for next time.

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I am so pleased with how this set turned out.  The fabric is amazingly soft and cosy and was a dream to sew with.  I’m also so pleased to have finally got around to making up the Hudson Pants and I think it’s safe to say I’m already hooked.  In fact I have another lot of fabric on the way so that I can get on with my next pair very soon.  If you’d like a sneak peek of that I’ve linked it here.

Have you made the Hudson Pants, or the Jarrah Sweater?  I’d love to know what you thought about the pattern and whether you needed to alter them in any way.

I hope you like my cosy set!

Thanks so much for reading – until next time!

Sally x 

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