These are my Simplicity 1696 trousers in navy twill, which I’ve been saying I would make since October!!!! I finally finished them! OMG! It turns out it’s almost as difficult to photograph navy blue as it is black!
I did have to make a few changes to the pattern to get it to this level of fit, which is still not perfect. Any tips on tweaks I can make will be gratefully received! I took about 4cm off each outside leg seam and 2cm from the inside leg seams. I also had to shave a little of fullness of the bum curve and angle in the waistband, but I didn’t note down by much, which is stupid because I’ll have to work it out again if I make these again!
I think the tweaking of the outside seams means that the pockets now stick out a little from the line of the trousers, but I’m not too bothered about it to be honest. The pockets are nice and deep, which I like! Also I wore these to work (exactly like this, with my melilot shirt) and no-one said anything, so clearly they weren’t thinking ‘wow, those trousers look weird.’
I think the fit is a little bit less good across the back. The pattern gives you room to tweak the fitting as you go, but I maybe will count these as a wearable toile and make some more adjustments if I make them again. There are some drag lines across the back of my thighs, so I’ll need to work out how to fix that!
This side view photo is possibly one of the least flattering photos I’ve taken of me wearing something I’ve made. My natural posture (if I’m not thinking about standing up straight) is with a pretty curved back and with my stomach sticking out (and with hunched shoulders too!), which is particularly unfortunately if I’m a bit bloated, as I was when I took these photos! I’m not pregnant, I promise!
I feel like these trousers may not be the most flattering shape on me – they do make my bottom half look quite heavy, but I don’t really mind as they are comfortable. I was conscious not to over-fit the waistband so they’d still be comfortable to sit down in.
Speaking of sitting down, here’s a close up of my arse! The fake welt pockets are definitely not my finest work, but hey ho. I’d almost rather have done real ones to be honest, or left them off as they were a kind of irritating fiddley step, but without the payoff of actual pockets!
And here’s a close-up of the front. I’m pretty happy with how the fly turned out as it did not look like this when I first sewed it, so there was some unpicking and some fiddling to get it looking okay. I also got a bit confused by the pockets, but luckily I had made the moss skirt for my sister, which has a similar pocket/fly arrangement, so I managed to figure it out. I think part of the problem is that it’s so long since I made a big 4 pattern, I was unfamiliar with their instructions – I’m too spoiled by the extra help and sewalongs that indie patterns give you. The button was just one from my stash.
I can’t think of much else to say about these trousers, except I MADE MOTHERF*CKING TROUSERS!!!! I’m pretty please with myself, if you can’t tell!
I’ll leave you with these outtakes from my photoshoot. The boyfriend suggested we take an action shot of me walking in the trousers and this is what happened……
This is me trying to think of other interesting ways to photography navy blue trousers, but it looks like I’m talking to our penguin (which doesn’t have a name, any suggestions?)
Then I gave up trying to think of photos so just posed with the penguin!
Have you tackled trousers yet? Have you been scared like me?
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sewingmachinations.com 
Great trousers. I especially love the back pocket details, even if you don’t think they’re good. Excellent photographs, too. Penguin should be christened Roscoe. Or Benedict, Obviously.
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Thanks! And I like Roscoe (second choice defo Benedict!).
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Congratulations! I can’t see that much in the photos, so I don’t know how helpful I can be. They look all right. Definitely wearable, and I think they look great with this shirt! I do see room for little tweaks but I don’t want that to sound overly critical because I think these are lovely… and pants fitting is hard! It looks to me like you could go down a size next time. Another potential fit alteration could be taking in the back inseams a tiny bit?… These are just suggestions, and it would probably be best not to do them at once but try them separately first, with the seams basted by machine.
More importantly: these are good as they are, if you’re okay with a relaxed fit (I do). Great job 🙂
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Thank you! I’m pleased I got over the hurdle of making the first pair! I agree I could probably go down a size – I’d forgotten how much ease the big 4 include in their patterns, and I went by my measurements instead of the finished garment measurements. And thanks for the tip about the back inseam – it’s hard to know where to make the adjustment according to the drag lines!
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These look great, especially for your first pair. My first pair of trousers were wide legged, unfitted and side zip!! I’ve made a few pairs of ultimate trousers from sew over it which turn out well with little effort. I just finished my first fly zip on a Moss skirt so might attempt one on trousers now.
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I’ve heard other good things about the ultimate trousers, so maybe I’ll give them a go at some point. I think you could definitely make trousers with a fly if you’ve made other trousers and other thins with flies, you could just combine the 2! 🙂
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I have the sew over it mia jeans from the capsule wardrobe in my sewing pile. I just need to get on with it!
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I’ve made a few pairs from one pattern (not very fitted) and I have been procrastinating for a year about trying a different pattern that is more fitted – I think the idea is scarier than the execution – I had a pair that I don’t like to wear and it seems like so much fabric was wasted! I’m also procrastinating about cutting out the D&D melilot – I’ve made a muslin but worried about cutting into one of my favourite fabrics – maybe I should do a wearable muslin first. Good inspiration for both items for me ;o)
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I feel like I might end up not making any more trousers for a while, because I’ve kind of ticked that box, though I don’t have that many pairs i my wardrobe, and I don’t have any jeans at the moment, so they’re on my to make list. I definitely agree that the idea of making them is worse than actually making them, especially since I got this fabric at a swap so they didn’t cost me anything.
I found the melilot a nice shirt to make, though I’d made a couple of archers first. If you’re scared about cutting into your precious fabric, I would go for a wearable muslin – and then you’ll end up with 2 new shirts, win win!
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They are amazing, well done 🤗 I’m scared to attempt trousers but keep thinking about them so going to take the plunge soon. Fab photos!
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Thank you! Definitely take the plunge, it wasn’t as scary as I thought. And it’s like any other pattern, I wouldn’t expect to get a perfect fit straight out of the envelope with anything else, so it makes sense trousers will need some tweaking. It’s just there are so many more options for the tweaking!
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Well done for making wearable trousers. I’m still struggling. It’s not the construction of course as we all know, it’s the fitting. So difficult.
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Thank you! The fitting is definitely the scary part! But I do remember reading a blog post by Cashmerette when she first made jeans where she put on her best fitting pair of rtw ones to see how well they fit and the fit was terrible compared with even her first pair of jeans. I best most sewists are really critical of ourselves sometimes, but what we make is probably way better – and way more our style – than anything we could buy 🙂
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That’s true
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