In praise of trousers

May 29, 2014 by steelyseamstress 9 Comments

Looking over my blog output for the last month, it doesn’t look like I have been particularly creative. However, I have been doing a serious amount of sewing in this time. Last night I finally finished a pair of trousers that I have been working on and I’m already half-way through an item that I intend to enter on the monthly stitch (more about that later!)

Recently I have noticed that I have a serious lack of trousers in my wardrobe and given that I wear trousers and jeans pretty much the whole time this is a deficit of almost devastating proportions. Trousers get serious wear from me; I literally wear them out. So above all my other clothes they do need replacing more regularly.

I was lucky enough to win this pattern in Sew Grateful week from Chris at Sewtypical  – thanks so much! The trousers are a classic design and will make a very smart item of work clothing. The fabric I chose is a medium-weight cotton from Calico in grey. Definitely think that grey is a much underused colour. It works so well with everything from a bold colours to pastel shades. I bought some cotton lawn in small polka dots for the yoke lining and the pockets from Fashion Fabrics.

I didn’t make a toile, I guess I’m just lazy, but I did do some extensive measuring. I made a couple of expected changes given my shape. I took a couple of centimetres from the crotch depth and seriously reworked the yoke (actually completely reconstructing the pattern pieces) to fit my (bulging) stomach. The rest of the pattern was a standard size 12. I’m actually rather pleased with the fit.

In terms of the construction, it was as reasonably straightforward, although I did get a little unstuck with step 7 where you are supposed to stitch the pocket to the back and the lining to the front. The illustration was tiny and it was difficult to tell whether they meant the front or back of the trousers. Add to that, that my lining had a right side and a wrong side and I was rather confused. I’ve added a few of my own scribbles to the instructions for future reference. I did understand what I was doing after a short walk to the corner shop to buy some chocolate, thinking all the way!

The only other thing that perplexed me about the pattern was the requirement for a 7 inch zipper which, in the end I had to cut at least 2 inches off. Even without my shortened crotch depth it would still have been stupidly long, and it would have still been too long for the largest pattern in the envelope. I’ll remember this for future versions and buy a smaller one.

 

Grey trousers

Grey trousers – back view

I pretty much finished the trousers two weeks ago, but I procrastinated over the buttonholes. They are my first buttonholes (yay!). Sadly the ancient Singer has no buttonhole option so I used the old-fashioned four step approach with just a zig-zag stitch. I practised for a whole evening before doing the buttonholes and then did them on the trousers themselves. They don’t look too bad, but I wouldn’t inspect them too closely.

I’ve been wearing the trousers all day. They are very comfortable (compared to my shop-bought ones) and the buttonholes are holding out!

Pattern: Vogue – V8546

Fabric: medium-weight cotton in grey, black polka-dot cotton lawn

Notions: overly-long zipper and two polka dot buttons