Romero Trousers: Work in Progress

May I present to you the March project from my #2020makenine sewing plans?! Like last year, at the beginning of 2020, I chose nine pieces of fabric in my stash and promised to sew them up throughout the course of the year. Having just realised that I never shared my 2020 plans here on my blog, check it out below:

Fabric:

The piece of fabric in the middle of my 2020 selection is some AMAZING, mid-blue denim that I bought from Merchant & Mills in Rye last year. It's broken twill weave (my fave!), medium weight and just the nicest quality ever. I bought it without a precise project in mind. I have a self-imposed rule of only buying fabric if I can envision what I'll make from it, however I'm so glad that I ignore that rule this time. The medium weight lends itself well to a spring/autumn weight garment. The buttons I used were also from Merchant & Mills, from a separate trip. I was running low on blue thread and determined not to buy another reel, so I stitched them on with contrasting red thread. 

Pattern:

I'm very rarely an early adopter when it comes to sewing patterns. Sewing pattern styles usually have to grow on me, and I like to see other people's versions pop up on the interwebs before I, myself, commit. This pattern was somewhere in between for me though. It's not a newly released one (so I had the joy of exploring the hashtag), however I knew I wanted it as soon as I saw it. I felt my beautiful, medium-weight denim would work well for the cropped/'trans-season' style. I don't have any cropped trousers in my wardrobe currently, but I chose to keep the length as per the pattern (rather than follow my instinct to lengthen the pattern pieces to ankle length) so that this garment would fulfil a different function to my broken twill Lander pants. 

(image source: Pauline Alice)

I am a ginormous fan of sailor style trousers. I even made a pair almost exactly ten years ago! I wore those a lot, until the cheap, nasty fabric I used shrunk and faded. That was at the beginning of my Rockabilly phase, and even though I'm out the other side of that now, I still love that nautical-style button detail. 

Once I'd bought the PDF pattern, I took the rare (for me) step of getting the A0 file printed out in large format using the Fabric Godmother printing service. I usually print out the A4 file at home and spend an evening sticking all those sheets together, but this felt like a special occasion! Before cutting out my pattern, I laid my Lander pants pattern pieces over the top to compare them. I could see that I would need to alter the crotch curve of the Romeros a bit, and I preemptively curved the back waistband so it would sit nicely against my lower back. 

I haven't used a Pauline Alice pattern before, and it was fun to try out a new-to-me company. I believe her patterns are available in English, French and possibly also Spanish, which is awesome. The instructions were fairly clear, although the pocket/button stand construction was pretty complicated, and I had to wing it at a couple of points. 

(image source: Pauline Alice)

Thoughts:

Now that we're in lockdown in the UK, I'm rarely out of leggings and joggers at the moment. However, I made myself wear these on a recent trip to the shops so I could analyse the fit. Generally, they were great and I was super happy with them. However, there was one thing that was bothering me. Because of the construction of the pockets and fastening method, the side seam at the pocket mouth isn't straight, and the pocket facing won't sit very flat. You can even see this happening on the sample pair on the Pauline Alice website (pictured above), as well as in my pair (below). As much as I like having the pockets, I've decided to try to remedy this by stitching through the pocket and button stand, which will seal the pockets shut but should help that whole area sit more neatly. 

Another issue that I think I can improve on, is the rise. I didn't notice until I was going through these pictures, but the back rise is too high. I didn't even want to share that picture here because the look is a bit embarrassing if I'm honest. I'm going to scoop the crotch away a bit to give my bum some more space, which should fix this issue. I love these trousers and the fabric so much that I really want to go the extra mile and finesse them as much as I can. 

There's also something a bit weird going on with the fabric around the front crotch area. It's particularly noticeable in the image above. I'm not sure if it's a tightness caused by not enough space in the front rise (some kind of rounded pubis (!) situation?) or a pooling of fabric due to some other factor. If you have any ideas, please leave a comment! I may not try and address this last issue in this particular pair, but I'd like to learn from them for future versions.

It may not surprise you to learn that I plan to use this pattern again, with tweaks. Or I may frankenstein the fastening pieces onto the Lander pattern, seeing as I achieved a better fit generally with that pattern. I'd love to make some shorts next, perhaps in red twill or linen. It seems that my renewed sailor pants obsession is here to stay for a while...

Avana Sailor Semi-Success

I first discovered the French children's sewing pattern company Ikatee when they contacted me last year with the offer to try one of their sewing patterns for free. I tested the Corfou dress pattern (which I reviewed here), and have been excited to follow their business developments and new pattern releases ever since. 

Pattern:

When Ikatee released the Avana pattern earlier this year I was, of course, smitten. Dolores completed surprised me by saying she liked it too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a sign that she's relaxing her desire to wear exclusively the girliest of clothing styles. So I grasped the opportunity and threw the Avana pattern in my virtual cart before she could have a change of heart. 

What really sold this pattern to me was all the style options included. The first choice you need to make is between the 'sailor' or 'urban' looks. From there you can pick between shorts, 3/4, 7/8 or full length legs. Then there's two types of optional braces to consider, and, if you're making the urban look, whether or not you want to include the belt loops and waist tie. Phew. You may need a rest after all that decision making. 

(image source: Ikatee patterns)

So Dolores and I agreed on making the sailor option with the corresponding 'H' shaped braces. I was making this at the tail end of summer, so we went for the 3/4 length. She's about to turn five, so I cut the 5 years size, but chose the 6 years length because she seems to be taller than a lot of kids of the same age, plus I was hoping these would last a full calendar year. 

Another option included in the instructions is the choice between regular elastic or adjustable 'button hole' elastic. I went for the regular elastic option as that's what I had in my stash. The instructions themselves are very thorough, with digitised illustrations for each construction step. Generally, I found following along no problem, however I did develop two tiny gripes: the first is that, through including the steps for constructing all those different options, it lead to a bit of confusion when trying to work out which bits applied to you and which you could skip over. Secondly, the translation into English was a bit clunky at points, and the instructions could have benefitted from being run past a native English speaker before they were published. 

Fabric and buttons:

Like so much of my fabric stash, I have no clue where this 1.5 metre length of aqua poly/cotton twill came from. I've had it in my stash for so long that I remember having it on my fabric shelf when I lived in Barcelona circa 2009, although I know I had it when I lived in the UK prior to that. I've always loved the colour of this fabric, but could never figure out what it should become. Mainly I was confused by its weight: a bit too hefty for a blouse or top, but a bit too lightweight for making a skirt or shorts that I'd feel comfortable wearing. However, for kidswear, the weight seems to be just right. 

I don't know if it's still the case, but for a while, about five years ago, it seemed to be really easy to buy sets of vintage/retro buttons on cards like these. I found them on a number of market stalls and in haberdashery shops in a number of towns, as well as in Snoopers Paradise in Brighton, which is where these probably came from. I'm not sure if they are legit French vintage dead-stock, or just a cute repro. Either way, these lovely buttons have been in my stash for at least five years, and FINALLY found their purpose by matching this fabric almost exactly. 

Thoughts:

The first point I need to make is that I'm AMAZED Dolores has agreed to wear these aside from for the indoor photos. I genuinely thought that I was making these exclusively for my own joy of making them. However, so far she's worn them twice, both times with this awesome striped M&S t-shirt that I picked up brand-new from a charity shop. 

Generally, I'm a big fan of this pattern. All the style options, plus a wide size range (from 3 to 12 years), make this pattern excellent value for money. There are plenty of thoughtful details, like including two options for top stitching around the front buttons on the sailor version. Plus, I really like how the braces are detachable, and the instructions require you to make two sets of button holes so that they're adjustable.

What isn't so great is that they have come up quite small. And even on the longest setting, the braces are a bit short, and they don't sit very nicely at the back (see above). The second time she wore them out of the house, we agreed to leave the braces off, so I think that is how they are going to be worn from now on. I was hoping they'll still be of use for spring/summer 2019, but I predict that I'm going to have to pass these on to a smaller child and make Dolores the next size up.