September 29, 2012

Cut shorter

As I told you, I made trousers. Trousers cut a bit shorter. I'm sure there's a proper name for a pair of trousers in length. In fact, I bet there are several names with claims at being the proper one, so I'm not going to bother with them. 

If you consider my earlier experiments with different styles and shapes of trousers, these are pretty tame. Just a shorter version of a tried and tested pattern, so not a lot of risk at creating something very unflattering. However, a lot my other trouser-experiments (certainly of those which made it into regular circulation) sort-of tied in with existing fashion trends. This one doesn't.
Good thing I don't usually let middle-of-the-road fashion dictate what I make or wear...

I really like how the trousers look with my lace-up boots. I bought these last year after a long and unsuccesful search for simple black knee-high boots with round-ish toes and heels about as high as the ones on these and, most importantly, a good fit around my calves (almost all I found were too wide, the two pairs that weren't were quite wrong is some other way). I like lace-up boots in general but these are pretty in-your-face and I've found it hard to make them work with my wardrobe. This look is definately the way forward! 

As I told you in the previous post, I made these trousers from a coupon of velvet/corduroy (there are wales but they're very shallow, so it's something in between). Straight waistband at the natural waist, scoop pockets at the front and single welts at the back.

Here's what those look like.

And it's hard to photograph, but I thought I'd mention it anyway (I bet most of you know this little trick already, but I also come across a lot of seamstresses who don't know and it's usually not in sewing instructions): If, like me, you're not a fan of topstitching (topstitching is great for jeans, works well with casual clothing and is a natural result of making flat-felled seams but, if you ask me, that's about it) and you're making some form of scoop or slant pocket, you can also understitch the pocket lining at the edge of the pocket opening. Just press seam allowances towards the lining (after clipping, if necessary) and stitch through the three layers. Works just about as well as topstitching to keep the lining from peeping out but without those pesky extra seam lines. 

6 comments:

  1. The pants look fantastic!

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  2. Those are great. Simple and achingly stylish. Wish I could pull off something like that!

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  3. Years ago we called those gouchos.

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  4. These are lovely. I'd call them culottes... it's funny because I was just showing a style almost exactly like this to a designer friend and talking to her about how much I love them and how they seem to go in and out a lot. They always come back around when the 70s are an influence. I really love wearing them with boots.

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