Sew Loft trouser pattern - Around the World

I decided for the Around the World TMS challenge to make some practical and much needed trousers for work.

When I saw this pattern was free I was very excited. I normally use a Burda pattern for my narrow leg trousers. This pattern from Sew Loft / Spit Up and Stillettos has pockets!

You can get this pattern from here:
http://www.hoopesparkstudios.com/whatever-happened-sew-loft/


Well everything went together wonderfully although I found the instructions for the fly front very confusing and in future will do them the way I normally do this. There seems to be an extra step where you attach the fly facing whereas normally I would attach this at the same tme as the zip to make things neater, but never mind I sussed that eventually. Its probably jist personal preference as well.

The problem really came from the fact I am trying to do this quickly and never tried these on until after I had attached the waistband and then disaster.  Of course I really should have known better!



They are a full 7 inches too big!


 Most patterns seem to come out big first time making but I was not expecting quite what I got. I seem to generally need a slightly smaller size than I start with but I do not mind taking in and adjusting slightly. After all slightly big is still wearable whereas slightly small is thrown away.

Now going by the measurements I need an S or a size 6. Next time I will be cutting an XS or size 0 to get the right fit by the looks of it and even then the difference in size still means even the smallest size is quite possibly too big.  I am really not that small usually.

I started off by pinning the excess at the back. I did not realise yet just how much they were too big.

The problem was how, without starting all over again, could I put this right?

I really did not want to throw these away because I have no more of this fabric and they would be ideal as work trousers.

I toyed with just adding elastic to the back but it is not really the look I am after so decided to try and put this right by increasing the darts.

I started by unpicking the waistband and then tried to disperse the excess over the darts and the centre back seam. In the end I took them in by making the darts much bigger ( about 3 inches each at the waistband) and the back seam lost about 1inch. I did not really want to do anything with the front, the fly or the pockets because they are all working fine so I did this just by altering the back and probably that is not really the best way to do it. Perhaps I should have just ripped it all appart and started all over again.

Anyway I took a chance and sewed.

 To a certain extent this worked but my darts are now huge and bulky so I cut off the excess fabric from the darts.

They do now fit but to get the darts to lie flat they extend right over my bum. I am actually toying with extending them fiurther down the legs since it may look better. The legs are quite loose despite being pencil trousers but I like that so would prefer to just try wearing like they are ad in the end they are at the very least "different" with the very long back darts.

This also means I have slightly out of line waistband seams and the side seams are downright wonky.

Hopefully you can just about see that the side seams vere backwards at the top of the hip due to my taking them in by so much.

 Its a shame because its a nice pattern for work clothing if it worked out the right size and I love the pockets.

I could even suggest it was down to me cutting the wrong size but I have double checked and they are a size 6 and my hip measurement is correct for the size according to size chart but they just turn out huge.

And for anyone using cm, 7 inches amounts to 18 cm so this is not a small amount these came out big by and I really find it hard to believe I could cock up by that amount. Its 3-4 sizes different to what I was expecting according to the pattern.

The end results is a slightly messy looking waistband from being unpicked several times trying to work out how to get the side seams to all line up - they don't - they are definitely wonky side seams and a pair of trousers which in the end do fit me but I am slightly disappointed with them if I am honest.

I used a skull print fabric for the pockets to get a nice contrast and cheer me up at work.

I used a snap fastener on the front waistband because to be honest I have had enough of messing around with these and really cannot cope with a buttonhole going wrong as well.

They will be OK for work because I tend not to tuck my tops in.

 Thanks for visiting

Bracken