Monthly Archives: May 2015

My new trousers are kinda weird.  They are seriously baggy and they have a seriously dropped crotch.  But they feel sooo luvverly on! I think I’m going to like them, in their weirdness, even though I know I look a bit kooky in them.   *shrug*
See, every now and again I’m seduced by an unusual but super-cool Japanese pattern, the kind of cool thing that looks awesomely cool on cool people.  And then am brought back to earth with a bit of a bump when I look at myself in the mirror and am reminded: I am not very cool.
Ah, well I can but try, haha.  The thing is, these are the comfiest trousers evah, as in incredibly awesomely comfortable, as in like wearing an old pair of trackydacks or pj bottoms, kind of comfortable.  Cool people know a thing or two about comfort, it seems.  Well, apart from the ones that wear skinny jeans, obviously.
My trousers are pattern No. 13, the Tapered Trousers from “she has a mannish style” a Japanese pattern book by Yuko Takada, and  I could see from the picture that they had a seriously dropped crotch,  which is just what you would expect in a “woman wearing a man’s pants” style.  So I did something very unusual for me and made a rough muslin.  My husband was a little bemused but Cassie gave them a big thumbs up, assuring me that lots of cool arty kids wear this kind of thing at uni.  This was both encouraging and, um, at my age; also a bit not, ahem!

Whatever, I ploughed ahead regardless; and ta da!
Technical blah-dy blah:
I made them in a deep navy-blue cotton corduroy from Spotlight, and cut the pocket linings and waistband facing from a pair of Sam’s old pj’s from the refashioning bag; nice soft and well-washed, navy-and-white plaid cotton flannelette.  I used a navy jeans zip, and a jeans-style, hammer-in stud for the button.  The pattern had patch pockets on the back, but since precisely zero of my husband’s trousers, not jeans, have patch pockets, I put in double welt pockets instead.  This gives a far more authentic “menswear” look, imo.

My measurements put me at size ML to L, however I found the waist/waistband in this size to be seriously oversized, by 10cm at the very least!! even taking into account that you make a tie with D-rings to cinch in the back of the waist, paper-bag style.  So I removed a tonne of extra width in the waist, while still trying to retain the boofy, oversized pants vibe of them.
I drastically enlarged the front pockets, by about double.  Seriously, the originals were so tiny you would not be able to fit barely anything in them, let alone hands.  I’m used to having to enlarge my pockets on patterns but these were teeny.  I very much liked the way they were constructed, with self-fabric facings and with a French seam to finish.  I think the finished pockets look really nice, both inside and out.

I’m not keen on the way the fly front was constructed, with the fly pieces cut separately only to be sewn back on immediately, leaving you with an unnecessary and bulky seam in the centre front.  I really cannot see any advantage in this, and prefer for the fly pieces to be cut-on.  And will do it in that way in the future.
btw, I have read reviews for this book saying that not all the instructions are given for a pattern; well they actually are but not always on the same page as your pattern.  The book only gives the instructions for doing a thing, like a fly front, once and once only in the book.  For example, the instructions for doing a fly front are given on p71, with the Semi-flare Culotte instructions.  It does mention this in the Tapered Trousers instructions, but since they are in rather small print in amongst the Japanese characters then it’s understandable why people might have missed that.  All the actual sewing instructions are illustrations, very clear and quite easy to follow.
So; in conclusion? I like my new trousers although, well to be honest I am a wee bit nervous of them, being so cool and all.   But I think my street cred will survive wearing them.  Actually, they remind me a bit of pants we used to wear in the early 80’s… omigod, did I just admit to that?!  Eeeeeek!  Street cred in tatters!

I think when you read a lot of sewing blogs and online forums and what-have-you, like I do, you can get swayed by the very popular notion that Fit and Figure-Flattery are the King and Queen of Sewing.  As in, everything has to skim your body just to the perfect degree, not too tight, not too loose, and be perfectly right for your figure type.  Hey, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that at all; I buy into those rules all the time myself too.  Just that, sometimes it is fun and nice to stretch yourself beyond those rules, to make and wear something that is not particularly fitted, is not particularly figure flattering, and is just stylistically interesting and cool and fun and kinda weird.  And comfy.  Fashion should be fun, after all.  I think it’s ok to try out new and unusual stuff once in a while.

And they are so warm and comfy, I’m going to love every minute that I have them on.  Well, every minute that I’m not worried what people might be thinking.  
Did I mention they are comfortable?

Details:
Trousers; the tapered trousers 13 from “she has a mannish style” by Yuko Takada, navy blue cotton corduroy
Tshirt; Closet Case patterns Nettie, with short sleeves and a breast pocket, in thin white jersey, details here
Cardigan; Miette, hand-knitted by me in Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran, in Gold, details here
Shoes; Enrico Antinori, from Zomp shoes