Trouser Talk

Having canvassed your advice on which pattern to use for my first pair of trousers I went for this one which around half of you went for with the others coming down quite firmly on the side of Sewaholic’s Thurlow trousers which I will do next time and already have the fabric.  Why did I go for the Burda one in the end?  The clue is on the top left hand corner of the pattern envelope.  Never mind that the ‘sehr leicht‘ and ‘très facile‘ versions are the only ones in the packet – the ‘very easy‘ and ‘muy facil‘ versions probably having been jettisoned long ago –  I don’t speak German but I do mangle the French language quite efficiently.

Of course, I didn’t dare proceed without a muslin so used a sort of thin, polyester, vaguely stretchy sort of fabric that somebody once gave me a whole roll of.  The town I live near in France used to have a thriving textile industry and most people around here either worked within it or have family that did so there are often various remnants of fabric bolts being offered around.  Although the largest factory made (might still make, actually) the fabric for car seats which might not lend itself to many garments.

This is the unironed, clipped up, clipped in front view modeled by reluctant daughter and, apart from the slight excess fabric on the front, which I think will pull up once the waistband is attached and the length taken up, I don’t think the fit is too bad. I did look at ways of adjusting the fit to get rid of the excess but it was all such a faff and I am hoping that, in the thicker, better quality fabric and with the zip put in and the waistband on, they will be fine.

The back actually looks O.K. to me.

and, if you ignore the unironed fabric, I don’t think the side view is too bad either.  I haven’t actually made any alterations to the pattern so now I’m wondering why I thought she was not a standard size!

Maybe I shouldn’t get too confident until I get to the same stage with the actual fabric.

In the meantime, I ran up a pair of pull ons or pyjama pants out of yet more free fabric for casual use around the house for said daughter who, as you can see from the purple, starry top, is happiest on a Sunday when she can stay in her pyjamas all day if she wants (and she usually does want).  I did use Tilly and the Buttons pattern from her book which I bought for my other daughter a while back but, instead of putting a tape or ribbon through the waist, I used elastic and then sewed the white cord on for decoration and to carry on the marine theme that seems to be going on in the fabric.

I was very proud of my stripe matching on these and can assure you that my model is standing on the wonk and it’s not the pants. Honest!

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