Toile Diary; Trousers

I firstly started off patterning my trousers by tracing off a simple trouser block. I used some toiled trousers that had been made for us to use and placed them on the mannequin with legs, this was very helped as I could measure and pin into place exactly how I wanted my trousers to look and fit, so that's what I did.

From my pinning and measurements, I worked out that I was going to take off a cm at the lower hips, 2cm at the knee and 3cm at the bottom off each side.

I then had to change the top of the trousers to fit my design. I adapted each side of the trouser leg to make each one angle out a lot more, I also added on the triangular waist and seams.

I then drew out my final patterns, I had the top part and bottom part of the back and front legs, and nothing was cut on the fold so a 1cm seam allowance was added onto everything all the way around.

I started off by firstly sewing in the darts, this was probably the hardest part of the trousers as I was sewing half of the dart on one piece and the other half on the other piece, so making sure the darts matched up perfectly was tough.

I then sewed the two top halves to the two bottom halves on the front and back pieces with a 1cm seam allowance and very carefully making sure I matched up all of the darts.

Then I went on to sew together the center front seams of the back and front pieces with a 1cm seam allowance.

The next thing I did was place in the zip at the side. Here I used a closed end short zip. Upon reflection of how the zip looked I'm thinking of maybe using a concealed zip on my final garment, only because I don't think the zip shows up enough or is big enough or placed where it can look like some obvious detail, so I am thinking it would look better if it was just concealed.

Then all I had to do was sew down the outside leg of the garment and then the inside leg, making sure I use a 1cm seam allowance.

This is how my final trousers look;

I am pleased with the final outcome and I am saving the hemming and facing for my final garment.

I made the trousers out of my final garments following these steps. I am leaving the facing and hemming until I have fitted the trousers onto my model, but I have prepared the facings and ironed it onto inter facing ready to attach it on.