During my pre-Paris sewing frenzy, I also made a more practical set of top and trousers to both work down my fabric stash and potentially pack… You already saw my Gemma dress, but there’s one last garment in addition to these trousers and top!
Black Trousers
I’ll start wit the trousers, since I fear such a solid workhorse may get overlooked otherwise.
I’ve had 2.5m of black acetate twill from New Craft House in my stash ever since I used their plum acetate twill for my Claudia trousers back in 2023 (I eagerly await the day I can fit into them again because I love them so much) and went back to buy more. My notes say I paid a bargainous £4.5/m for this, especially good value considering it’s Japanese, from Hironen Mill. It’s long sold out but they’ve got similar acetate twills currently in the clearance section.
(This was my old style of tracking fabric details, folded into the fabrics in my stash. It’s since been replaced by the brilliant KATM tape)
The Made by Rae Rose Pants pattern is fairly similar to the Burda pattern I used for the Claudia pattern, with the main difference being that Rose has an elastic back waist wheras the Burda has a classic tailored waistband and front zip fly. Having the elastic back hopefully means they should be more forgiving to my waist measurement as I continue to lose weight!
Based on my current waist and hip measurement, I made a Size L. But since this is my first time sewing from this pattern company, I did my usual shortcut and compared the crotch curve to an existing, TNT trouser pattern. The result was that the back crotch curve is almost identical to my TNT, but the front crotch needed shortening & lowering slightly to match.
(Orange is the original Rose for size L, and green is my TNT pattern)
This pattern uses 1/2in seam allowances, which are by far my least favourite choice! I much prefer 1cm or 1.5cm (3/8 or 5/8in), since those actually have accurate markings on my overlocker.
And boy did I need my overlocker for this fabric!! I don’t remember the plum acetate twill being a pain to sew, but omg this was a horror – shifting, growing, shredding, etc, but I can tell it’ll be a dream to wear. Thank god for the overlocker!
The fun of sewing fabric that’s more of a liquid than a solid is asking yourself questions like “Is the back inseam 3in longer than the front inseam on both sides, or did my fabric just really grow??” (The side seams were evenly matched) Turns out I was bothered enough to go back and measure the pattern post-alterations and they’re within 1cm of each other – so it really was my fabric, not the pattern. 😒 As a result, the side seams aren’t quite laying straight or flat in the finished trousers, despite lots of pressing. I guess the fabric grew unevenly, like something cut on the bias might?
But that’s not my only source of woe with the finished trousers: I was expecting the fit to be more… oversized on these. I made size L but tbh, it’s a bit touch & go to get the waistband over my hips – even before the elastic was inserted. Honestly, I should’ve gone up a size. It’s my first time with this pattern company, but frankly, I expected more ease? Again, maybe it’s an issue with my weirdly growing and shifting fabric that, like a bias-cut garment, as the length grows the width decreases? This is just a theory, as I know people absolutely LOVE this pattern and I haven’t seen anyone else complain about the ease being so tight.
Again, I checked the pattern pieces for waistband length (40 1/2in) vs finished hip measurement (42in) but I swear mine feels like less in actuality? This might just be a case for me to shrug, move on with my life, and maybe try this pattern again in a less finicky fabric at some point down the road.
I stole a detail from my Claudia trousers with these and also used the same black satin fabric for the pocket linings, which I love. Having tactile pockets is such a treat for myself!
The instructions give you the choice for the back elastic in the waistband of using either two narrow elastics in separate channels, or a 4cm wide elastic and topstitching it down. I obviously chose the latter (which is similar to the Closet Core Pietra Pants, which I adore), because using two narrow elastics is just a terrible, terrible finish IMHO.
Between the ornery fabric and the meh/fine pattern, this was not a joy to sew. This was a “get it done so I can wear it” project. I do like the finished trousers (please forgive the horizontal wrinkles from sitting in a car for 90min to get to my inlaws, whose garden we borrowed for the photoshoot), but I think the pain of sewing them needs to fade a little first. Thankfully they’re lightweight and cool enough to be worn through spring and summer so I should get a lot of wear out of them.
Red velvet tee
I have no recollection of tracing out this basic tee pattern (#127) from the February 2024 issue of Burda magazine, but considering the whole of 2024 is a big blur, I’m not that surprised. But I was flipping through old magazines and found the traced tissue paper, and figured it’d be the perfect pairing for some velvet jersey in my stash.
My notes say I bought the 1m remnant of “Bordeaux poly/elastane stretch” velvet for £13.50 from New Craft House in July 2024 (though I do have a vague memory of buying this!).
If I’d had a little more I would’ve cut out long sleeves instead of short, but I did have enough to cut out a second, rectangular collar to see if I like that better than the basic neckband. J always has better taste in this arena than I do, so I basted the polo/turtleneck collar on to get his opinion, and he preferred it to a regular teeshirt neckband.
Previous Melissa had traced size 44, the largest for this pattern, and I’m glad she did, because I think the fit is just as I was expecting.
The construction of this was exactly as you’d expect for a basic teeshirt, and tbh, I didn’t even look at Burda’s instructions. This came together super quickly on my overlocker, and I actually did end up taking this along to Paris!
