Mustard Marinière Trousers

AT LAST!!! I gathered some inspiration, learnt some stylistic lessons and finally did something about it! By trawling the depths of La Marinière tumblr and Pinterest, I learnt how good two of my style obsessions, Breton tops and mustard-yellow, could work when put together. 

Source: dofgstyle.com via Zoe on Pinterest

I created my 'Outstanding Outfits' Pinterest board to help me figure out how to work nice garments into interesting outfits, something I've never felt very skilled at. I have to say that pinning outfit pics that my instinct says are successful, then making myself analyse the components has been really useful in getting an idea of how my own wardrobe orphans and potential future makes could work. This board was filling up with variations of this Breton/mustard-yellow combination.

Source: la-mariniere.tumblr.com via Zoe on Pinterest

There comes a point when the quantity of the same damn image really needs to be acted upon! I even had some lovely mustard stretch twill-type fabric in my stash that I bought at the tail end of last year. As I've discussed at numerous points on this blog, I basically try to sew solely from my stash of second-hand fabric, but when visiting a certain fabric shop in Brighton to pick up a zip I saw this fabric and knew I had to make a couple of metres of it mine.

Source: studentswife.com via Zoe on Pinterest

So after the semi-success of my Ultimate cropped trousers, I knew I finally had a good starting point to entrust my precious mustard fabric to. As stated in that blog post, I had to make a further couple of changes to the pattern: raising the front rise as the waistline dipped down at the front, adding 1 cm to each side seam and lengthening the legs to full length. I also drafted a little faux pocket flap for a bit of extra detail. The pocket flat is stitched down at the top with the point trapped down by stitching the button on top.

So what are my thoughts on these, what could be my ideal trousers? My thoughts are they are damned close to perfect. The overall fit came out looser and more casual than I was aiming for. Before these pics were taken I actually pinched 1 cm out from the inside leg which improved things a lot. I think this is because, whilst the grey version were too tight, this mustard fabric has more stretch in it than the grey so the extra width I added to the side seams might not have been necessary after all. But I do like the casual fit, they are so comfy and I've already worn them several times in less than a week! So they might not be the slick, sexy mustard skinnies I was aiming for, but they have already proven to be very wearable, and you really can't ask more than that from a garment can you?!

The other 'flaw', for want of a better word, is that this version inexplicable gapes a little at the waistline at the centre back. This is something I'll address when making another version. And I'm positive there will be other versions. As I wrote when blogging about the grey cropped version, I really think I have found the most successful starting point for trousers for me. That's one giant leap for me-made kind! 

So to put things in terms of The Jar, (and what other terms are there, ultimately?) I can happily say that I have created not only another wearable garment, but one that has been on my mind and my Pinterest board for way too long! So I make that four wearable garments so far this year, and seeing as it's still March, that kind of puts me a garment ahead, month-wise. Therefore now I'm going to spend some time giving thanks to and appeasing the sewing gods by completing some mending and repairs and embarking on a selfless sewing project. 

http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-ultimate-cropped-trousers.html