I'm sewing some trousers!!

So, sometime last summer, before my egg cracked, I had an idea. I wanted a pair of 1920's-30's style mens/boys knickerbocker pants. I've always been a fan of 3/4th length pants, and it sounded like fun.

Finding a pattern for said knickerbockers was a doozy. I eventually found this pattern https://evadress.com/collections/1930s/products/1934-wide-leg-trousers-and-knickers-t30-1141 And while I was fairly confident that it would not fit me, I figured it would be a good starting point.

Next I purchased some lovely bright aqua fabric from Swanson's Fabrics. https://www.swansonsfabrics.com/ It's a lovely resource, as I am loath to purchase any new fabric, as finding something that is produced by people being payed a decent wage and in a reasonable to the planet way is quite a challenge in the modern, fast fashion world. And, I'll be honest, the fabric makers I know of that do? ..well, they're frequently out of my budget. So, for now at least, taking a risk and buying someone's old project fabric is totally my speed. to add: pictures of the awesome fabric!

As is so frequently the case, this project was delayed, then delayed again, and so on until it was deep winter before it began. At that point, my urge for knickerbockers was somewhat subdued. But! The pattern I purchased had options for both knickerbockers and for full length trousers. So.. trousers it would be! Additionally lucky, I had more than enough fabric to go either way on that.

Somewhere along the line, I realized I was a guy. Which also changed the approach. Not drastically, they were men's trousers to begin with, but still. I started to re-evaluate what I wanted out of my wardrobe, and I realized that what I would really, truely, love. What I wanted is to have a collection of suits. Optimally mix and match trousers and jackets that were in a selection of colours, but a consistant style or two, which suit me well. I don't know exactly what that looks like yet, but the idea really intruiges me. Beyond simply haveing nice suits, I want these suits to be active suits. Clothing that I can move and do things in. Is that asking a lot from my clothing? Maybe! But men did active things in suit trousers for a long time, so there's no reason I couldn't. So, more defined goal- trousers that I can wear equally on a deskwork day and working out, doing acrobatics. Granted, I'd probably set the jacket and probably my overshirt off to the side for actual, extended work, but I'd like to be able to do the odd acro pose in the full get-up.

So, now it was finally time to do the thing, as now these are Rough Draft Pants since I have no evidence that I'll be able to do anything in particular in them.

So, I had to look into the, kindly included, instructions on how to grade the pattern. I did some measuring and realized the pattern was too small for me, so I'd be grading up. Conveniantly, I have an abundance of brown paper, so purchasing some reasonable, thinner paper for patterns wasn't yet necessary.

to add: pictures of the grading process

So now I had my pattern, in an appropriate size. I eventually got back around to first ironing, then cutting out the actual fabric!

to add: pics of the cut out pieces

I had some spare fabric that I was intending to use for the lining and pockets, not a full lining, but lining pieces. But when I finally said to myself "ok, time to cut out pockets!", I couldn't find where I'd put it. But I did have an old piece of costuming from a time in which I was a fan of a certain wizard story franchise that I had been meaning to repurpose. So.. time to attack it with the seam ripper and see if I can pull the bright gold fabric that was used to line it out and put it in as the lining and pockets of this pair of trousers! So... that's been a delay, but an enjoyable one. Once I've finished picking this apart, we'll see if there's enough of it to be used!

I have, of course, located the original fabric I had planned to use, so if I find that there isn't enough of this gold, I have a back up plan.

To be continued!