sasha trousers Archives - Handmade by Carolyn

sasha-jenny trousers, and a honey-coloured turtleneck

21/06/2019 3:35 pm \ 9 Comments \ Carolyn

I made a new outfit for myself! well actually I thought I was, although as it turns out I had only made half a new outfit for myself. But as halves go, I’m pretty happy! Also, I know it seems like I’ve only just finished wedding sewing, but how does one choose to wind down after a bout of incredibly, stressfully intense, VIS??? btw, that’s Very Important Sewing in case it wasn’t obvious. Well, one dives head-first into a fresh new sewing project, of course!! Ha! and it felt awesome too… because by comparison this is VUS, or Very Unimportant Sewing, and man it sure felt good! I loved every minute of making these new things #youknowyoureobsessedwhen

First things first; I made some new trousers… I’ve been wanting to make this particular love-child of these two different Closet-Case patterns for aaaages now! I’ve always really liked the mid-riding style of the Sashas; how it sits feels very comfortable, and how it fits is quite flattering for me. I also love the magnificently flared wide-legs of the Jennys, and thought how cool it would be if they could be jammed together into one, gloriously slouchy, flare-y package. Well, ta da!!!

please excuse horrible but apparently obligatory butt-picture…

I just needed some nice fabric, which popped up suddenly in Spotlight of all places… Spotlight has fabric highs, where they’re stuffed with a tonne of really very nice and affordable options and you’re completely spoilt for choice; and also sad and lengthy lows, where there’s nothing but absolute crap… You just have get in there and stock up during the good times and then endure the bad times until the good times roll around again. Anyway, currently they’re having a rather awesome high, which is pretty nice for us sewing-obsessed peeps. I mean, I’m not supposed to be buying any fabric right now… but you know. When you see something good, it’s not going to be there forever! I pounced upon this stretchy, narrow-whale cotton corduroy in this gorgeously yummy shade of caramel pretty much instantly… not only is the colour so very me, but the stretchiness is just exactly right for that required for the Sasha’s too. Right nearby was some really lovely, very soft honey-coloured knit; very cashmere-like in its feel though it’s actually just acrylic, but that’s fine. Fabric snob, I am not, well, most of the time anyway. I planned a honey/caramelly sort of an outfit for myself. A Mars Bar, sort of an outfit. #nowiwantamarsbar #damn

What is the other half of the wannabe outfit?? well, I’d downloaded the free, tessuti patterns Monroe turtleneck pattern ages ago, printed it out and had it lying around; and I decided it would be a good one for the honey-coloured knit. In my head my snuggly new sweater was going to look absolute perfect with my new, wide-legged slouchy trousers. I could hardly wait to wear them together! So did things work out just exactly as planned? don’t be silly!

I absolute adore my caramel trousers, they turned out to be everything I could have hoped for; however… the turtleneck… Well right from the word go it did not want to be my turtleneck. It really really just wanted to be Cassie’s. I was barely halfway through when I realised it had her name written all over it. The sleeves and collar of the Monroe turtleneck are tight-fitting, with a dropped shoulder and a very boxy, oversized body; a combination which looks pretty terrible on me, I’m coming to terms with that sad fact (sob) but I know is quite gorgeous on Cassie. It’s a style she has worn before, and worn well too. When she came over in the evening I gave it to her, and her reception was most satisfyingly enthusiastic! I might even whip some more for her… it’s a very quick and easy pattern to make and you only need about 1.2m or so. And I do have several other tops already that I can wear with my trousers. I’m ok with passing things on that don’t want to look good on me, especially when they look so good on another, and are so warmly received! 🙂

Some technical sewing deets:

The turtleneck; nothing much to say, just made straight up; sleeve hems done using a twin needle, hemline done by hand because the fabric was stretching out some. Super easy.

R2D2 says hi….

The trousers; I cut out the tops as Sashas, and from the hip down they are almost Jenny’s. Not exactly Jenny’s because the patterns are actually completely different from each other and can’t really be “melded” that easily. For one thing, the Sasha’s are drafted for a stretch while the Jenny’s are not. Another thing I pondered quite a bit, was the alignment of the back leg piece; because the grainlines of the back legs in the two patterns are very different to each other. I’ve made up two pairs of Sasha trousers previously, exactly to the pattern, and for this new pair I decided to alter the alignment of the back leg piece, pivoting the ankle a little outward, so it’s got a similar grain line to the Jenny’s.

The waistband lining and pockets are cut from some ikat cotton, that Mum gave to me a few years ago, from when she cleaned out her stash. You can see I attempted to finish the pocket edges with French seams as indicated in the pattern, but it was just too bulky around the heavily-interfaced pocket opening area, so I overlocked the edges for that little bit. Probably would have looked better to overlock the whole thing, but the pockets were all basically finished, done and dusted by this point so I was just, ehhh *shrug* I used the little Closet Case label Heather sent out along with the pattern. Cute, huh?

I’ve found that around the waistband hook and eye closure at the front, no matter how heavily you interface the waistband and facing, the hook and eye will pull the facing out a little, just because the two layers aren’t joined together at this point…. for these ones I kind of stab-stitched the two layers together all around the hook, keeping the stitches tiny and almost invisible on the right side of the waistband. You can see the stitches if you know they’re there, but I think you can barely tell, and it does help to keep the waistband nice and flat-looking, and no hint of pulling out of shape while you’re wearing them.

I am SO PROUD of my welt pockets!! You know how sometimes one welt pocket might look a little better than the other and so you just take picture of that one for your sewing blog and quietly leave out the other?? oh wait, what? no I never!! oooo I would never something so devious, oh no…. Well anyway, both my pockets turned out to be things of perfectly-matching beauty, if I say so myself…

Details:

Trousers; Sasha trousers by Closet Case patterns, with wide legs from the Jenny trouser pattern
Honey coloured turtleneck; the free Monroe turtleneck by Tessuti Patterns
my pink top; the twist top from the Japanese pattern book “Pattern Magic” by Tomoko Nakamachi

this picture adds nothing to the story apart from Zoe looking kinda funny … oo I’m so mean. Would I ever post a picture of myself looking kinda funny?? NO

me and my big fluffy girl on our holiday down south together, just the two of us… was so nice 🙂

…wearing them here with my mustard Nettie tee and my self-designed mustard cowl also self-knitted socks

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, Closet Case files, daily outfit, jeans, jenny, jenny jeans, monroe turtleneck, sasha trousers, tessuti patterns, trousers

grey 3/4 length trousers; 6 different ways

14/12/2018 4:17 pm \ 14 Comments \ Carolyn

So, I made these cropped trousers last year, using the Closet Case Patterns Sasha trousers pattern, and a khaki/grey stretch gabardine from Fabulous Fabrics; and they have been heavily worn over the past year, so heavily in fact that they have reached the ecologically recommended magic number of thirty wears in less than one year’s residence in my wardrobe! That’s pretty amazing, I think! It’s funny to me, because I actually wasn’t 100% keen on them when I first made them; thinking the fabric was a tad on the thin and plasticky side. I liked my blue version more, in a more satisfyingly heftier-weight fabric. However! I just wore them and wore them and WORE THEM! The fabric was very comfortable, but I think never destined for a long life; by the end of it they were getting quite stretched out but I forced them into just a coupla extra wears more than they should have had, just so I could say they got up to that magic number 30. I don’t know if it’s just me, but that 30 wears thing? has totally guilt-tripped me into being unable to even think of tossing a thing out, unless I can be quite sure it’s had that number of wears. I know, seems like such a good idea, ecologically sound and all that, but feels little silly in execution?! Mmm-hmm!

So I know they got 30 wears, thanks to my handy dandy stylebook app which counts it up for you, and also my ootd blog, which I update like the awkwardly passe blogger that I am. Does anyone even keep ootd blogs any more…? that’s a rhetorical question btw, since I’m pretty sure the answer is no! Another awkwardly passe thing to do of course, is to talk about “how to style” an item of clothing, which I shall now proceed to go ahead and do, ahem…

So. My 6 favourite outfits with the trousers, and btw, all items I’ve made are linked to their original construction post:

Below, at left; they were light, warm, and stretchy, making them comfortable and practical enough for hiking during the winter, a thing we do on the regular believe it or not. Here, I’m wearing them with one of my warmer jumpers and scarves, hand knit socks, and my trusty old hiking boots which have very sadly also bitten the dust during the year, sob! It’s funny that the grey in the trousers didn’t match up with any of the colours in this crazy jumper, and yet I still think it all worked quite well!

At right, I think out of all these, this outfit was my absolute favourite; worn with my Carolyn white cotton shirt and my apricot split top, sockettes and white sandshoes. This exact outfit had multiple repeat days.

Below, at left; I think this outfit got a few repeats too. My khaki suede, baggy oversized tunic top felt like a perfect match for the sleek grey trousers. Worn also with my raspberry tee which I thought a nice zing! of colour, and the same sockettes and sneaks.

At right; I chose this outfit after one night going through, and getting inspired by, the archives of a favourite ex-blogger of mine, who had a style I LOVED. I think she’s let her archives go, or made them private or something since then though, so I can’t link. Blue check shirt that I originally made for Tim and he grew out of it and gave it back to me – score!, and my little blue/grey cardi that has surprisingly been one of the most useful things I’ve EVER made. And sockettes and sneaks.

Below left; this funny mish-mash of grey/navy blue/mushroomy pink seems like it should be a) a disaster, and b) shouldn’t suit me at all; but I inexplicably loved it! worn with my navy blue merino tee, my tie-dye cardigan and a scarf that Tim gave to me for Christmas a few years ago… Oh, and the sockettes and sneaks like before. I have to admit, these sneakers were like the perfect shoe for the trousers, and I wore them together most of the time. I apologise for the lack of shoe variety!

At right; I love red and grey paired with each other! otherwise simple and basic, but then simple and basic is a nice safe no-brainer isn’t it?! My scarlett Miette hand knit cardi, my cream drape-y tee, and my old blue thongs that also went kaput during the year after a few years’ excellent service. I know! it’s been a year of several old favourites going kaput on me, which is pretty sad. A moment’s silence, please…

So farewell, ye old grey trousers! Your life was short, but practical, and I thank you for going the prescribed thirty-wears distance!

Posted in: fashion \ Tagged: 6 different ways, sasha trousers, trousers

Sasha trousers

23/11/2017 4:57 pm \ 38 Comments \ Carolyn

husband is off waiting with Clara and calling me; haven’t I finished taking pictures yet?

Hmmm, I know how this seems; I’ve only just written a post where I say how I am busily focused on solely making things for other people, as Christmas gifts and then here I am popping up with more things made for ME… haha, well there is a perfectly reasonable explanation, and that is that I actually made these trousers a few months ago and am only just now getting around to taking some pictures and writing about them. See? Perfectly reasonable!

Pattern; so this is the newly released Sasha trouser pattern, by Closet Case patterns, named for the impossibly chic Sasha of secondo piano… Heather contacted me asking if I would again be willing to test the new pattern for her… would I?! well yes, of course! I actually love testing patterns, I can feel like I’m doing something useful and productive and actually even helpful? one can only hope… Instead of the embarrassing truth that I’m clutching at any old excuse to nip into the sewing room and selfishly indulge in my favourite hobby once more, hehehe.

Fabrics; a blue stretch denim, thickish; and a thinner, maybe a bit too thin? grey-green stretch gabardine, both from Fabulous Fabrics. Yes, two pairs! actually the blue pair is really the first pair I made and is an earlier version of the pattern, the grey pair is my second pair and is the final version of the pattern how it’s been released out into the wild. I really love my blue pair though so I’m still going to wear them 🙂

Pockets: the blue are in blue linen, a leftover scrap from my stash that was initially a toss out from my friend L; and the grey are in some the leftover floral from this shirt I made for Craig last year, and also some StarWars fabric leftover from when Cassie made some boxer shorts for her boyfriend. Love me some crazy pockets!!!

Thoughts; so what to say? what you see is what you get here… this is a very nice pattern for a pair of very nice, sleek and elegant, slightly tapered, slightly low-waisted trousers. One of my favourite features is that smart flat front which I always think of as vaguely menswear-inspired, rightly or wrongly; and I absolutely LOVE the menswear look on women.

Lately I’ve kinda been in the habit of having my trousers a little more high-waisted, but I do think this lower-waisted look does sit and look better when one has a little bit of a tummy.

The trousers are satisfyingly equipped with a plethora of pockets; four, in fact. Two welt pockets on the back, I have to say these are super well-engineered, and intricately explained in the instructions. I can see the sample ones have button closure under the welt, which mine don’t have so I think this must have been an add-on after the testing process.

And two slanted hip pockets, I absolutely adore these, they’re totally perfect. Toss in the un-topstitched waistband/belt loops and hidden button and hook/eye closure, and it all adds up to quite a tailored and “formal” looking pair of trousers, perfectly suitable for business or office wear.

I mean, not that I’m an expert on office wear; but you know. In my sadly inexpert opinion, I think these would make great work pants.

just imagine I’m walking into an important office building in the city instead of a blank wall…

Also, they’re stretchy so they are also perfectly comfy and fine for doing a spot of gardening… We went down to our beach block to prepare it for bush fire season and the weather was a little cold… and none of my other “gardening” duds that I’d taken down were actually warm enough so I ended up wearing these all weekend. They were awesome. So comfortable! And practical! Hardy! I wore them to scramble about on all fours most of the weekend, pulling weeds, raking, and loading the wheelbarrow. And going to the rubbish tip! I lead such an exciting life!

obviously you can wear them to the beach too.