February’s challenge for The Monthly Stitch was Smarty Pants.
Pants shopping for me is pure torture.
Here is an old post where I vent after one particularly distressing pants shopping expedition, if you are interested.
In my filing cabinet I have a few pant/trouser patterns but I love a good bootleg/flared pant – I don’t care what the “fashion” people say, bootleg/flare is always “in” in my books! Since Kat and I both have the Sewaholic Thurlow pattern we decided to make those up together for another Twinsies shoot.
Oh, yeah! We made Twinsies Pants!
We’ve both been super busy so we took these photos during lunchtime at Frank Kitts Park where we found one of Wellington’s many awesome sculptures. This one is Fruits of the Garden by Paul Dibble.
Pants are kind of hard to photograph…but it’s easier with a friend…and fun backdrop 🙂
Fun waistband lining? Check!
Back pockets? Check!
This was my first Sewaholic pattern from the envelope. Previously I have printed off PDFs for pattern testing only so I was really surprised at how thin the tissue paper was, probably the thinnest I have ever encountered. I am on Team: Trace All The patterns and it wasn’t the easiest to work with.
Since I had high hopes for this pattern I copied on to thicker tracing film for durability – I am hoping I can tweak this to become my “go to” solution to my pants shopping woes.
I selected some poly/viscose/spandex suiting out of my stash, bought with trousers in mind way back in March 2010. The pattern envelope stated 2.30m would be required for my width of fabric but I only had 1.60m, oops!
I am always up for a good pattern layout challenge so with Harriet’s help I did a test layout:
Harri’s face says it all, “2.30 meters? ‘sif! It totally fits!”
She loves hindering helping!
I cut all my the lining pieces from a cute quilting cotton that I picked up from one of my last trips to AT, it has teeny tiny fruits on it!
I really like the final result, they fit quite well (although a little tight at the moment since I’ve been slack in my gym attendance 😉 ) and give me the professional look I was after. I can see myself making up a few more pairs and maybe even the shorts version.
The back waist band is in two pieces which lets you stitch a snugger fit, no gaping, yeah! I also like the generous back extension and the sewing order makes it easy to adjust the whole fit as you sew.
I do feel the rise is a little low so next pair I will try to correct this.
The instructions are good, I haven’t made pants in ages and I managed fine with them however I do wish the right and wrong sides of the lining pieces had been marked on the diagrams. This slowed me down a little because I wanted to make sure the printed side of my cotton ended up inside the pockets.
Imagine if I’d gotten it wrong? I wouldn’t be able to show others the awesome hiddeness of my pockets! But I worked it out eventually and marked my instructions for next time.
Welt pockets, so sexy!
The back welt pockets instructions and fly construction were really clear but I found some of the waistband diagrams a bit misleading, more notes added for next time 🙂
I chose not to “stitch in the ditch” to secure the inside of my waistband and hand stitched it down instead. I find that machine stitching can often look messy in this instance. It didn’t take me very long and between this and the hemming my hand stitching is really improving.
Make sure you check out Kat’s awesome denim Cat’s Meow Thurlows over on her blog too 🙂
THE DEETS:
Pattern – Sewaholic 1203 Thurlow trousers, straight size 8
Fabric –
- 1.60m of 148cm wide Poly/viscose/spandex suiting from Fabulous Fabrics, Perth, purchased March 2010 for AUD$22.95
- Quilting cotton from Arthur Toye, Wellington
Other notions – 1 button (from stash), metal pants slider thingee
Big thank you to Sandra for playing photographer, you rock 🙂
the curious kiwi 
Wow Thurlow magic – fantastic trousers Mel. The fit looks fabulous and lovely flash of colour with the lining. Wow.
These look just as great in photos as they looked in person! I love the fun facing fabric and the amazing pockets! Well done!
Nice trousers – I love the hidden fun fabric on the inside. I had to stop and google those welt pockets at the back, that is massive amounts of gorgeousness right there!
Pingback: Cat’s Meow Thurlows | Modern Vintage Cupcakes
Your trousers are a fabulous advertisement for the pattern. Did you size down for the stretch in your fabric?
Thank you 🙂 I did not size down for the stretch. It’s only a little bit stretchy, enough to add some comfort. I just stitched up my size based on the envelope measurements.
I am also making Thurlow trousers right now. I just made test shorts and need to fiddle with crotch length and then will begin my work pair on a brown suiting. Yours look great!
Wow-love those welt pockets! Great pants- I do like a bootcut. Love the twinsie photoshoot
I’m on team Flared Bootcut Legs Are Always In. Those Thurlows look pretty awesome. Maybe I should get me that pattern as well, being a pear and all that. Have you noticed how your lining fabric matches the sculpture? It looks like a beautiful park, the only park I know that has a lot of gorgeous statues is in Oslo, called Vigelandsparken, and I remember that it was awesome. You girls are very lucky to have all that beauty nearby. Keep making twinsies please!
Fabulous! Thurlows are one if my favorite patterns but I haven’t made them in a while. I had a beautiful grey wool that I bought from Craftsy when I purchased a pants fitting class. I didn’t think to check but they only sent 1.5 yards which can’t even make the smallest of the sizes according to the envelop. You give me hope that maybe I could squeeze it in 🙂
Oh Heavens, you, Kat and Sandra, triple trouble at lunchtime! Awesome troozers!
The fit looks brilliant. Nice work!
Wow, they look very nice! I have the pattern here too and I think I have to go fabric shopping right away … thanks for all those online-stores 🙂
I love those pockets!
Herzliche Grüße,
rebecca