Finally summer

Today was the warmest day of the year so far. Feeling real summer weather again makes my mind rush to all sorts of summer things I might need (if such weather lasts, that is): tops, dresses, skirts, shorts, jumpsuits...

At least I finished a new pair of summer trousers this weekend.
I used my good old belt pleated trouser pattern. I just cut these to capri length and planned little slits at the bottoms of the side seams. 

The fabric is some narrowly striped black-and-white (or very dark blue and cream) stuff which was sold to me as cotton. Judging from the hand though, I would think there's linen in it. Anyway, it's sturdier than most of the linen available and yet nicely light-weight. 

I will probably wear these trousers with a top over them most of the time, like in the first picture. Of course, I can go all retro and tuck it in. It's a look I love for skirts, but it makes me feel self-consious to do it with trousers (except in the case of my shorts, oddly).

Please let me point out to you that I am wearing heels and leaning back a bit in this picture. Here is no fold under my bottom otherwise.

These will be great for warm weather and they are still work-appropriate. I have to say both the colour and the length will take some getting used to. The big-hip effect which belt pleated trousers always have is just a bit more obvious like this. And any fold and and crease shows in a light coloured fabric... 
Although I have to say I already felt better about the length today. 

Here's a close-up of one of those back pockets (note to self: place those a bit lower next time). Single welts with horizontal stripes

And here's a little trick I used for them. All back welt pockets tend to pull open a bit when you sit down. And they usually don't get back to the right position on their own. To avoid this (and, mostly, pockets hanging open on the rack), a lot of RTW brands tack the insides of back pockets together giving the costumer the choice between a neat looking back pocket or a functional one. Of course, the normal way of preventing this (also used a lot in RTW, although often in combination with tacks, which as mentioned before are largely for the sake of appearance in the store) is to button the pocket. For a single welt, that is done with a buttonhole just below the welt.
In this case, that would have placed the buttonholes half-way over the points of  the darts. Which would make them tricky to make, if they could be made at all. So, I thought I would try something else: I sewed (by hand) little snap to the inside of the welt and the back of the pocket. Invisible from the outside but it does the job. I wouldn't recommend this for all styles of trousers. On these, the seat is fairly loose so you don't pull very hard on those pockets when sitting down. I don't expect snaps to do such a good job on the back pockets of trousers which more closely fitted at the top.

I still have about 3 meters of this fabric left, so I could make plenty of other things with it as well. Should I try and make a matching jacket (my old linen jacket is getting rather tired...) or would that just be too much pale-grey-like fabric? A simple gathered skirt would be nice as well. And I could make both of those from the remaining fabric. On the other hand, one part of me wants to turn every bit fabric I get my hands on into a retro dress or a jumpsuit, and another part wonders if I really want a lot of this stuff in my wardrobe at the same time....