Non-Euclidean trousers (243/365)

[white_hart]

I've made lots of pairs of elastic-waisted trousers over the last few years. This week, I made my first pair without elastic.



These are the Harper trousers from Wendy Ward's Sewing Basics for Every Body. It's a unisex pattern for traditional pleat-front menswear-style trousers, which appealed to me a lot, though I suspect that being a unisex pattern may account for the fact that they're tight on the upper hips and loose at the waist. I also found that the waistband was mysteriously a good two inches shorter than the waist of the trousers, so I had to cut the piece in half and add an extra bit at the back. I thought that maybe I'd made a mistake tracing the pattern (one of the worst things with patterns from books is that you end up having to trace off multi-sized patterns from sheets with several patterns overlaid on each other), as the notches lined up around three-quarters of the trousers and the difference all seemed to be in the right front, but when I checked back my pattern piece seemed to be symmetrical and my fronts are the same size, so I can only conclude that I have somehow managed to make non-Euclidean trousers.

Anyway, overall I'm quite pleased with these, though I'm not sure I will actually use the pattern again.

Comments

[white_hart]

I suppose that because elasticated waist are gathered all the way round you don't have to worry about placement in relation to where you actually go in and out as you do with darts and pleats. I'm glad I started with fully elasticated trousers, I think!

[(Anonymous)]

I had a really good Vogue trouser pattern with welt pockets that I used a lot in my twenties but don't know where it went. It worked really well! Of course it is possible that in my twenties I was a slightly different shape.

[antisoppist]

Sorry log-in fail! That was me.

[white_hart]

I'm going to try the Pietra trousers next, which I think was one of your fails, but I used their pattern for my boiler suit and that fits well so I hope the trousers will too.