Me Made May day 29 – The Clover Trousers

My Love Hate Trousers!

These have been the problem child over the month of May, if I hadn’t said I was going to make them they would probably be in the bin or at least in the pile which says, I might get to you, Like never!

But because of you lovely lot and the pressure of the MMMay makes I had to finish them.

It took all of my patience and my knowledge, which is minimal, and my shear luck to actually finish these and for them to look ok and fit.

So the good things about this pattern, well it was easy to follow, the instructions were comprehensive, I really like the pockets (a story to follow about those later), the shape and the length, the not so good things which are probably all my doings, the sizing, the pockets! The instructions on the zip weren’t included, which as a beginner pattern I think should have been.

My trouser journey begins………..

I measured myself and cut the appropriate size, the first mistake I made! I should have also looked at the finished measurements.

I was working with a good quality ponte roma and I was glad of its stability. The fabric was easy to work with, I popped in a couple of darts at the back whilst thinking these are tiny darts! Maybe mistake number 2?!

I was enjoying making these up until the point where I had sewn on one waist band, pockets and even enjoyed putting in my invisible zip and then it happened! I tried them on!

Far too big! This is where the finished measurements would have come into play, so I had to unpick, the invisible zip which wasn’t fun, and then the waistband also not fun with black jersey, black cotton and an impatient Lizzy.

I think the next few stages happened over a good week or two. They got put out the back, I wasn’t enjoying them, I was disliking them at the moment.

I tried them on again and worked out how much I was going to need to take them in, bigger back darts, take some out the back and some out the side and by this point the pockets had been discarded! As I went through this process of taking in I kept trying them on and they were still looking quite big so I took some out all the way around the crotch area so that they were smaller there too.

After a day or two to get over the trauma of all of the adjustments I was ready to tackle the waistband. This by now was far too big, so in the end I just pinned it at the seam then all the way round and just cut off the excess at the end. I wasn’t sure if this was going to work as it wasn’t going to be the same shape but I gave it a go.

All sewn on and then the invisible zip (for the second time) it was perfect, I think I love invisible zips! Then that was it, now to try them on again! The fit! It was very exciting, they actually looked ok.

I finished them off with the waistband facing, and hemmed them and finished.

I can honestly say I am relatively happy with them, I still think they are a little bit too big and maybe I should do the smaller size next time but the journey I have been to make these has been great.

I might not make trousers again for a while though, unless I am under supervision from and expert.