Continuing on with my need to fill my wardrobe’s trouser-shaped void, I decided this time around to try (gasp!) a different trouser pattern! But since I still wasn’t sure how well BWOF 05/2006 #112 would fit me, I opted to sew it up in the leftover black cotton drill from Simon’s pirate coat so that nothing would be lost if the fit was awful.
Frankly, I should’ve trusted Burda more – the fit is even better on these than on my casual TNT (“tried and true”) pattern I’ve been making for ages. These trousers have a seam running down the front leg that goes right into the pockets at the waist, and I think this extra seam really helps to shape them more closely to my legs.
I couldn’t wait for the photoshoot to wear these, though – so forgive the wrinkles! By this point they’d already been out for a friend’s birthday cocktails followed by langostines (yum!) in Soho, plus a full day at work. So just trust me when I say that there are no fit wrinkles when they’re fresh…
(Bosco just can’t stay away from the camera! And that All Saints leather jacket is the new love of my life, btw. Definitely an investment purchase, even on sale.)
It’s hard to photograph the front seam detail on these since it’s black fabric with black topstitching, so you might have to squint a bit! That seam is meant to look flat-felled, but the construction is instead to press back the seam allowances of the centre front piece and topstitch it onto the side front after the pocket facing has been completed.
I always love to give my trousers fun pockets, so in these I used the same Alexander Henry lining as my black leather handbag (looking so much more fresh and new in those photos than is currently truthful after a year’s hard wear!). The pockets are shifted a little bit closer to the centre front than is normal in trousers because of the special seaming, but it’s still plenty of room to get a hand in.
I used a trouser hook for the fastening as suggested in the pattern, but I decided to add rear pockets and normal-length belt carriers to make them look a bit more casual in this fabric. The only fit alterations I made were to take in a 1cm wedge in the centre back seam (I suspect I might have cabinbaby’s “runner’s butt”!) and the corresponding amount from the centre back waistband, but then I decreased my seam allowance at both side seams through the hips to about 1/4” instead of the usual 5/8”. I think if this fabric had any stretch whatsoever I would’ve been fine with the intended seam allowance, but as it is, they’re a lot more comfortable with this little amount of breathing room.
All in all, I’m really pleased with the fit of these and I think I might remake them in the silver denim I bought at Goldhawk Road. But frankly, I’ve just been so bombarded with amazing new Fall patterns (in the form of September’s BWOF magazine and Patrones #272, which is TO. DIE. FOR! But more on that later.) that remaking this might be a ways off. I’m feeling seriously overstimulated here…