So let’s take a look at my new Burdastyle trousers. The pattern is from issue 1/2010 and has the sort of classic shape that I’m very fond of.
Picture of the original Burdastyle pattern.
The pants are fitted around the hips and upper tights and from the knee down they are straight legged. I have tried sewing so many different trouser shapes over the years and I’ve found that this is the shape that fits me the best. My legs can look a bit short and stocky in some trousers, but I don’t feel that this is an issue with these pants.
I spent a lot of time trying to get the fit right around the bum and waist. I have a sway back and always have to take in a fair amount of fabric in the back seam.
The fabric I used is an organic cotton twill and so obviously it is quite wrinkly. I think the best trouser fabrics are either wool gabardine or bengaline (a rayon/nylon/lycra mix). Bengaline is a very popular fabric in Sweden both among home sewists and in RTW because it is easy to work with, hangs beautifully and is easy care. For my next pair of trousers I probably use bengaline instead.
As for my main fitting issue, which is excess fabric underneath the bum, I didn’t manage to completely get rid of it. One problem was that I didn’t have enough fabric for truing the side seams after I had done all the alterations on the trousers. Could that perhaps be the cause of drag lines, that the inseam is a little tight? Anyways, it is still a huge improvement compared to how the trousers fitted initially. I will make a separate post sharing some progress pics of the fitting process so that you can see the changes.
I added contrasting fabric for the waistband facing to make it more fun! It is a cotton quilt fabric from Amy Butler. Quilt fabrics are really great for these kind of details!
If you look closely you’ll see that the belt loops have not been stitched in place on the outside. I tried this technique for the first time with these trousers and loved it. I found the method in the Pants for real people book (Amazon affiliate link) and it is pretty genius! I really like the clean look of these belt loops. The waistband is kept in place using the stitch-in-the-ditch technique and while I didn’t achieve a 100% accurate finishing on the inside, it was the best application so far.
The inside seam of the facing. Since I sewed over the belt loops the seam got a bit curved on these spots, it was just to bulky for my machine to able to sew a straight line. I also used wondertape to keep the facing in place (my waistband wondertape tutorial).
I also used the same dotted fabric for the pocket lining. I have done a tutorial on how I did the faced pockets if you want more details.
So here they are, my first pair of me-made proper trousers since 2009. I used to make tons of trousers back in the days, and I was happy to discover that I still had some skill-set left in me. Plus I think that my new mindful approach to sewing really payed off on this project as I spent a lot of focused time working on the different elements plus trying out a few new techniques too.
For more details on the Burdastyle pattern: see my review over at Pattern Review. Others who have reviewed this pattern has also given it five stars. So a truly great pattern!
