SIMPLICITY 1069 CULOTTES / you look radiant!

Hello! Back again! This time with a garment that scores such high compliment ratings, I recommend you all go and make one forthwith!

The item in question is a pair of cropped-length culottes, sewn from view B of Simplicity 1069. I can't remember where I first came across this pattern, but it was love at first sight: the shapes in the pictures caught my eye, and then I realised it was a multi-garment pattern consisting of both culottes and wrap skirts, and was immediately smitten. Two items at once so similar and so different, both of which I'd been wanting to make for a very long while - whenever it was, this pattern hit me at just the right time, as I had neither thing in either my wardrobe or my pattern library. I had to have it!

And then of course I didn't actually do anything with it for over a year. (In fact, it might even have been two).

When I did finally open the pattern envelope, I discovered that the first page of the instructions was missing, so I didn't have any of the diagrams or general info, just the text - in Spanish. Fortunately I've sewn enough pairs of trousers to not need a great deal of info, and just googled the relevant vocab to check which way to press the pleats and suchlike. Also of great help is that there are only 4 pattern pieces: front, back, and front+back facings. It was traced and cut in no time!

Cutting was a pain, though. As you can hopefully tell from this marvellous pose, my fabric is a lovely drapy crepe (probably a polyester-rayon mix: inexpensive but prone to creasing) which shifted all over the place during the making process. But thanks to the minimal pattern pieces, it was manageable - and upon completion I forgave it instantly anwyay, because let me tell you: THIS FABRIC IS LUSH. It hangs beautifully without clinging anywhere, just swishes around in a cool and luxurious manner - these culottes are an absolute delight to wear, and I would probably do so whether they were flattering or not.

However, it seems they really are! I wore this exact outfit to work yesterday and had two people tell me how fab my trousers were, three people telling me I looked "radiant" (!!) and, one, well ok it was more of a backhanded compliment, but I'll take it: "Jo! You look great! Different somehow... really quite... chic!"  Er, thanks? Yes probably quite different from usual, indeed.

Personally, I think it's all down to that shape that grabbed me in the first place. These trousers are wide and pleated and culotte-ish in perfect balance. There is no bulk where it's not needed, but just the right amount of fabric to skim down from the waist into those deliciously wide (but not too wide!) legs. I mean, look at those lovely pleats:

And the back view is not bad either. Having learned from previous trouser-sewing experiments, I carried out a flat seat adjustment on these, which I think makes a good deal of difference - if there was too much more fabric there, the back legs wouldn't drape nearly as nicely. Small things, but important! The method I used was from this book, which I find absolutely invaluable. Often the methods it describes are different - and frequently simpler - than most tutorials online, and in fact I wanted to link to a version of how I did it for this post, but couldn't find one. So, if there's any interest in a quick tutorial for an easy flat bum adjustment, let me know and I'll post it :-)

The main thing to note about the fit of this pattern is that, as we have come to expect from the Big 4 pattern companies, it comes up large where it should be more fitted. I chose my size based on my waist and hip measurements, and it's not far off being just right - but the pattern does explicitly state that:

1. the culottes are designed to sit 1" above the natural waist, and;
2. the finished waist measurement has 1" ease above the actual body measurement.

But as one can clearly see here, these neither reach my natural waist, let alone 1" higher, because there is a lot more than 1" ease.

These didn't turn out a lot too big, but big enough to not be wearable, because they just wouldn't stay put. Time for some ninja fixing skills. While I had been quite looking forward to wearing proper trousers with a zip for once (y'know, like a grown-up), resorting to elastic AS USUAL was the obvious remedy. (I realise now that I haven't blogged all the trousers I usually wear, but yes, elastic waists everywhere).

So, I made an elastic casing by topstitching the trousers to the facing at 2cm below the waistline, leaving gaps of +/- 3cm either side of the centre-back zip. I then fed my elastic through and secured it to the zip seam allowance on either side to hold it in place, stitched the gaps closed, and that was it. Waist brought in nicely! And I actually think the resulting trousers are better this way than if they had fit properly to begin with - they're certainly more comfortable, but because the elastic is only a few cm longer than the waistband itself, there's no bunching or gathering - they still hang as smoothly as if they were properly, more closely fitted. WIN!

Yes, I like them very much.

Not that you can tell from my facial expressions, but we've already established that I'm giving up on those.

These pictures are just me swishing and swooshing my culottes around, hoping you can tell how fab they are.

Make no mistake: these culottes are fab. Go sew yourselves some, you radiant people!

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MORGAN JEANS + GRECO TEE / plain and simple

OK so having gone on about how great the iphone camera is, I'm not sure what happened to make these pics come out all grainy - but I'm not re-doing them! And actually, I think that's entirely appropriate to the makes themselves: low-key, laid-back - basically, clothes for lazy days off.  In keeping with the whole theme, here you also have me posing without even having blow dried or tied up my hair*.  Today we are doing the very casualest possible, thank you very much!

* and, it turned out, with the onset of my very first migraine. Ugh.

So let's start wth the jeans, shall we? These are a pair of Morgan jeans that I made two years ago. At the time, this was a big deal - they were the first pair of jeans I had ever made, in fact the first pair of trousers that weren't stretchy Hudson pants (I think). So there was quite a bit of nervousness about the both the fitting and the sewing processes being more involved than I was used to.

(By the way: yes, still struggling to coordinate photo-taking posture with photo-appropriate face. No longer struggling with whether to care, I shall just post them anyway.  You'll be able tell when I've lost all remaining self consciousness, when I stop even mentioning it...)

Of course by now you've probably read approx 1 zillion blog posts about the greatness of  Closet Case patterns' jeans-sewing instructions, and yes, I was pleasantly surprised to find that sewing jeans wasn't/isn't difficult (even allowing for sewing machine uncooperativeness when it comes to buttonholes). As many others before me have found, it was even rather enjoyable, especially because at the end one has MADE ONE'S OWN JEANS!! So as far as the sewing process was concerned, no problem.

On the fit, however, I stumbled slightly. I wasn't so lazy as to avoid making a muslin, but I was lazy enough to not bother attaching the waistband to it before deciding on my adjustments.... and I also didn't factor in that my denim had considerably more give than the upholstery fabric I muslined with.  With the first wear of the final jeans, it became abundantly clear that not only could/should I have gone down a size, but also that I really didn't need to faff around shortening the front crotch. At all. See those drag lines?

And that's with me wearing these jeans as low-slung as possible.  Even then, the waistband is all bunched up under my belt. Plus, that's a hell of a lot of extra fabric in the bum area too:

I've since come to the realisation that I tend to need a flat butt adjustment on most trouser patterns - but I also think that for the non-stretch Morgan jeans, sizing down and allowing the fabric to bag out a bit with wear is definitely the way to go.

In real life though, where for better or worse no-one tends to be looking that closely at either my front or back crotch, it's hardly a disaster. I have been wearing these jeans solidly for the last two summers and it's fine, even if they can't really be paired with tees any shorter than this, for the sake of covering up the fit issues.  The denim isn't super heavy, so they're ideal trousers for mid-temperature weather, and at time of making, it was a real relief to switch back to non-skinny jeans again. Plus I love the cropped length and look of them with the turn-ups. So, yay for Morgan jeans! I did immediately make another pair in linen, actually - but they just came out of the wash and need ironing, and I wasn't going to do that just for blog photos, so you'll just have to imagine them. They're grey and the fabric came from Ikea. They have the same fit issues but worse, because linen.

Anyway, on to the t-shirt!!  I think we can all agree that the ideal t-shirt pattern is an elusive beast, essentially because we would never be able to agree on what the ideal t-shirt pattern actually is. Everyone's ideal tee looks different. However, this one comes pretty close to mine - and, bonus points because it's FREE!

This is the Greco tee by Ensemble patterns. As you can see, it's a loose-fitting scoop neck t-shirt. The pattern comes with a couple of options - straight or curved hem, short or cuffed sleeves. I went for the curved hem and cuffed sleeves. The pattern notes mention that you can get different effects using different types of fabric - the less drapy your fabric, the boxier your tee - and in fact I made three of these t-shirts in three cotton jerseys with varying lycra content. This orange one is the drapiest and stretchiest, and has turned out to be my favourite to wear (plus, ORANGE). The others are a shade too boxy for me (something I never thought I'd say!), even though neither of the fabrics are particularly stiff. Perhaps sizing down for a slightly closer fit in less stretchy fabrics would be a good idea. Anyway, overall the proportions of the Greco are exactly what I want from a t-shirt. I don't have much else to say about it than that! I hadn't come across any other t-shirt patterns that quite fit the bill, so this one plugged a gap there perfectly.

Another good thing: the pattern pdf is available in A0 format as well as A4, so I splashed out and had my local printshop print it for me. I usually don't, as they charge 6.50 euros per A0 sheet, but this pattern is all on one page and I figured I could handle the cost this once, given that I hadn't paid anything for the pattern itself. These days I'm increasingly feeling that life/time is just too short to spend it sticking together patterns tiled on A4, and will just choose printed patterns wherever I can. But there are still plenty of patterns available in pdf format only, and at that price, having the local printshop do it isn't really a permanent option. So I've been extremely pleased to recently have discovered Patternsy - who will print large format pdfs, or even tile A4s together if you're prepared to pay a bit more, on excellent quality "heavy" tissue paper, and ship it to you at top speed at exceptionally reasonable prices (even factoring in shipping to Europe; they're based in the UK). Given that pdf-only patterns are usually slightly cheaper than paper patterns, the total cost of having Patternsy do my printing doesn't usually come to more than I'd have been prepared to pay for a paper pattern in the first place. All round win!

Right, so, there we are. I think I've said all that I possibly can about this most basic of outfits, and almost certainly more than was strictly necessary :-)

Byeeeee!

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GREEN LINEN ARCHER / blog comeback?

Yo guys! I'm back! Here's a shirt I made! 

This is my second Archer shirt - in fact, I think it's the second button-up, collared shirt I've made myself ever. The first was ages ago when Archer shirts were a new and exciting thing and the whole blogworld was making them and I thought I'd join in even though I hadn't worn a shirt for about 20 years, and the ones worn 20 years previously had basically encapsulated everything that was awful about dressing oneself as a teenager in the 1990s. Needless to say, although I liked my first Archer very much in theory, it didn't actually get a lot of wear. I suspect the plaid flannel was a bit too close to teenage-me for comfort.

This one comes from a different place. A place where Archer shirts have been around for yonks and are actually a bit boring in blogging terms these days I suspect (but you're still reading this, right, so we're good?) I am now also slightly less influenceable by what all the cool kids on instagram are making, or at least, less immediately so (I'll have been lurking whatever the algorithm shows me for quite a while before I finally give in and buy that hot new pattern from 6 months ago).  So when I found myself needing long-sleeved, lightweight shirts to take on holiday to Jordan over Easter this year, I found myself thinking: hey, I already have a great pattern for that! And promptly went shopping for linen.  

This rather lovely forest-green stuff comes from Berger, my reliable go-to source of solid basics. It was 7.5 euros a meter, which is a pretty good price for a perfectly good linen, I think. It was a bit stiff to begin with, and softened up a little in the pre-wash - but it was on washing the finished shirt that it really started to "break in" and it's just been getting softer and lusher ever since. To the point that I have been falling steadily more in love with this shirt every time I wash it.  I really love it!  It has no 1990s overtones at all - in fact, I'm greatly enjoying the rather 70s vibes it gives off, aided dramatically by pairing it with some deliciously high-waisted and wide-legged jeans I got recently in H&M, which I probably do more than I should. (I don't care).

Other construction stuff: it's view A without the butt ruffle, I did my usual no-dart FBA, lengthened the shirt body by 6cm and shortened the sleeves by 2. I followed the pattern directions but found myself wishing I had used Marilla Walker's method for attaching and finishing the collar, as detailed in her Isca dress pattern - which by the way I must also tell you about sometime soon, I love that dress - because I found it more straightforward in getting a nice tidy finish. Right now unfortunately I can't remember the difference except that I found Marilla's version way less fiddly when closing up all the seams, but if I go away to look it up this post will never get published.

Also, while we're on technical details, I just got a remote for my phone camera, having swapped to an iphone after years on android, and these two things combined mean that taking pictures for potential blog posts is now WAY easier because a) I always have my phone to hand, b)  the iphone camera is shit hot so the pics don't really need editing, and c) I can therefore just upload them when I'm on the metro or whatever. So who knows, maybe I will actually tell you about that Isca dress sometime soon.

Nonetheless, making appropriate faces for blog pictures remains a challenge.

Anyway, as is the way with holiday sewing, I finished making this the evening before departure, except that I hadn't done the buttonholes. I tremendously dislike buttonholes, not because I am afraid of them but because, despite all the sweet talking, cajoling and downright bullying I have thrown at it over the years, my sewing machine remains a bitch that refuses to sew a functional buttonhole if it can so much as smell an adjacent seam allowance, no matter how trimmed or graded.  But then I had a brainwave: somewhere like Amman would of course have tailors, who could sew them on the spot. I texted my sister (who lives there, and who hosted and holidayed with us) to confirm my hunch - and went to sleep having happily avoided an obsessive pre-flight sewing all-nighter.

Two days later, we found the downtown tailoring district easily enough, located a man available right then, and proceeded to have the following conversation.

Me : it just needs buttonholes where I've marked with the pins.

Sister and tailor : discuss in Arabic

Sister to me : is it a man's shirt or a woman's shirt?

Me : it's for me.

More discussion

Sister : he says it's wrong.

Me : I know, that's because I sewed the placket on the wrong side by accident.

Sister : what's a placket? 

Me : ... explains...

* Sister and tailor : more discussion, rather intense

Sister : it doesn't make sense.

Me : but I don't actually care which side the buttonholes are on anyway.

Repeat from * about 4 or 5 times

Me : ok tell him it's a man's shirt.

Sister : tells him it's a man's shirt

Tailor : rolls eyes, tells us to come back in an hour

Sister and me : leave, feeling a bit sheepish

Needless to say, this shirt has the best buttonholes of any garment I have ever made, and probably of any garment I will ever make in the future too. Now I want an industrial sewing machine that can be relied upon to power through all the seams in all the things at top speed, but the husband is sadly not on board, mainly because this would involve either an extra item of furniture, or cutting a hole in one we already possess. Spoilsport.

This picture ^^ didn't really come out as intended, but is essentially the exact image of myself I have at work when adding people to my daily list of fools, as in, I don't suffer them gladly.  I am totally super-professional though so I answer all the stupid questions with enthusiastically cheery politeness, and then when I hang up I do that pose in my head.

Anyway guys. Make an Archer! In linen! They're so good! Not news to anyone anywhere, I know.  So my main tip for this post is: GO TO JORDAN.  I cannot even begin to describe what a great place it is to visit, so I won't even try, but seriously. Do it! 

Hasta pronto, my lovelies!

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Back at it

Yesssss the scissors are out again!!

One dress-length fluorescent striped Sutton blouse hack, coming right up!

In other news, knitting.

I'll spare you the story of why there is a sofa in front of the door to the garden.

I started the sweater - in fact I liked starting it so much, I did it about 4 times until I got a gauge I was happy with. 

It starts with a neckline welt, which reminded me how much I love provisional cast ons. Such a clever thing! You know what else I love? That on Ravelry, you can use "provisional cast on" as a pattern search criteria. (Yes I know that should be 'criterion' but it just sounds weird). On Ravelry you can use almost anything as as a search criterion (ok fine, inner grammer nazi). You want free patterns for socks knit sideways with a provisional cast on in Estonian, sorted in order of hotness? Take your pick.

Also this week, I blocked a cowl and maxed out my credit card paying the security deposit for a motorhome rental. The next time I tried to order some yarn - and it wasn't even much, less than 20 euros!! - my payment was refused. NOOOOOOOOOO.  Holidays are all well and good, as is budgeting properly, I suppose. But GAH. A pattern pdf here and there never broke the bank - however a month without paypal might just break ME. 

On which I shall leave you, contemplating just exactly what that says about the health of my online purchasing habits #ugh

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White, grey, all the colours

WHITE: this box, its contents, and snow.

Me and daughter went to buy the box and its contents on a day when the city was covered in dirty slush. She spent the whole time wishing she lived in the countryside where the cold is prettier, much to the chagrin of me and her dad - we both escaped from rustic tedium as soon as we could, but does she appreciate the bright lights of the big smoke? Does she crap. Ah, the circle of generational resistance! She also filled my phone with random pictures in and from the shop. This view of the car park is the only one in focus.

The box and its contents cost almost 1400 euros. Well, I suppose the box was free. The contents are for my sister's wedding dress. Am I insane? Yes, probably. I have until 6 May.  A mock up has been done, and I only have about 4 pages of adjustments to make before the next one.

Good thing I asked for a whole bunch of tailoring and couture-appropriate sewing supplies for Christmas, really.  Here's hoping it all makes the wedding dress sewing a total breeze. That's likely, right?

GREY: January, my mood, some yarn.

The above was a grey afternoon earlier this month when I cut out an admittedly not-grey dress (an Elisalex, should you be interested) which I am now wearing, as I write. That fabric combined with my blue cardigan makes me feel a little like I'm in school uniform, which is not exactly lifting my spirits.You can hear the grey mood, can't you? I've basically been a total misanthrope for the last two months, December's final week of food, booze and chocolate excepted. I expect I'll cheer up soon. But it probably explains my growing addiction to Noro yarn.

The trick with Noro yarn is to always buy it on sale. Although unless you are very strong willed you will cancel out the savings by buying so much of it your cupboard is overflowing with the brightly-coloured nubbly stuff and you have no idea what you will do with it all.

I am not very strong willed.

For balance, I have combined this radiant rainbow of a skein - so the scarf is at least semi-sophisticated - with a contrasting solid colour. Yes, more grey.

But, see this next knitted thing: ALL THE COLOURS!

Yes, I do already have a (not-combined-with-grey) Noro scarf thing. Which is just as well, because above-mentioned daughter has already claimed the new one for when its done.

I like how the fringe on this one makes me feel like a hippy.

In other news, I have been investigating (i.e. buying supplies for) cross stitch. Because I need a new hobby like I need a hole in the head. But hey, variety is the spice of life - and totally not a "I'm scared of sewing a wedding dress" distraction!

*      *      *

I think I might be here more frequently, maybe, from now on. But less, well, I don't know - I might ramble and there might be less crafts. It's time... time to let some of the writing out...

I hope you are well, dear friends! Belated happy 2017! What are you working on to start your year?

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La Maison Victor: Fran dress

You know a dress is a winner when you wear it to work on your birthday and two separate people ask if you're pregnant when you're most definitely not.

Yeah. That happened.

Fortunately, I have now officially reached the age of Give No Sh*ts (see also: pink hair; tattoo). Turns out that people find it extra doubly embarrassing when you refuse to be embarrassed by their embarrassing remark - and friends, I must admit that I found it just ever so slightly EXTREMELY satisfying to see them squirm.

Plus, besides the Giving of No Sh*ts, I had fashion on my side. OVERSIZED IS A THING! And why should those of us who know that be cowed by the maternity assumptions of those who don't?!! It's hella wide and gloriously comfortable!

So, reasons why this is a brilliant dress:

1. Shape: on trend! (Probably. Right? I don't really care anyway!)

2. Fabric: viscose! FABRIC OF THE GODS. Light and flowy and warm YES PLEASE THANK YOU, especially for only 6 euros/metre (Brusselites, get yourselves to Berger, they currently have it in various prints).

3. Fit: nailed! You'd think a loose dress like this doesn't need much fitting, but it's absolutely got to hang right or it really will resemble a maternity outfit. I started with my high bust measurement, traced off the corresponding size and then...

• Added a dart. Much as I love the dartless FBA, given that I was adding 2" width to a woven bodice, I wanted more precision. I used the paper pattern piece to locate my bust point and determine where/how long I wanted it, and I must say it turned out perfect. You'd hardly know it's there. STEALTH DART!
• Lengthened the bodice centre front by 1", i.e. also more room for the boobs.
• Shortened the bodice centre back by 1", i.e. swayback adjustment.
• Did a 1cm forward shoulder adjustment and...
• ... a 0.5cm narrow shoulder adjustment.

Guys, this dress fits so well it actually feels weird! I have NEVER before worn a dress that didn't constantly need to be pulled forward, and where the sleeves sit perfectly on the edge of my shoulders. Or a dress with a gathered rectangle skirt that didn't ride up in front and hang low at the back. The whole thing just stays put where it is, from the moment I put it on. It's like a whole new way to wear clothes! And it's incredible what a difference this all makes to how flattering it is ("when's it due" questions aside). It is far superior to my Lucie dress - which is very much the same shape and concept, but infinitely less wearable because I didn't make the same adjustments.

Yep. That's my face for "I Officially Love This Dress".

Almost as much as I Officially Love Biscuits And Cake.

OK actually maybe I can understand the pregnancy comments after all.

(Pattern: Fran dress, La Maison Victor, 3rd edition 2016. Slight hang-ups about other people's opinions: model's own)

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Closet Case Files Sallie

Helloooooo! How are you all? I hope you've been having nice summers/winters, depending on  your hemisphere.  My summer's been spiffing, thank you very much - a laid back July at work, the kids happily employed at various sport camps, then off to Germany and Slovenia for plenty of fresh air and beautiful landscapes, all rounded off with a weekend of festival fun in the UK. And now, here I am, just hanging out in the garden at home.

Hanging out! Geddit?!! Y'know, the swing...? Yeah, ok. Moving swiftly on.

So, I made a dress. And I'm going to tell you about it even though the photos of it are so glaringly bright as to make the details indistinguishable. Better than no photos, eh? Just shield your eyes from my blindingly radiant bosom.

The pattern is no doubt recognisable to most readers as the Sallie jumpsuit/dress by Closet Case Files. As you can see, I combined the kimono-sleeved bodice of view A with the maxi skirt of view B.

The pattern pieces for the bodice front and back are actually identical, which - though I have no doubt it works fine for many - I decided on first sight to ignore, because boobs. I traced off separate front and back pieces, tracing the neckline and shoulder according to the size for my high bust (I can't remember which size it was, sorry) and then having the kimono sleeve meet the side seam two sizes up, corresponding to my full bust and waist measurements. So basically a lazy fudge rather than a full bust adjustment.

Then, I knew I wanted a more blousy effect to the bodice than it is as drafted, so I added 2 inches in length all round the bodice - and then an extra inch at the centre front to complete my cheater FBA. In the end, I also decided to curve the back waist seam back upwards about an inch in the middle - and as you can see above, it's a good thing I did, because there's still plenty of fabric pooling in the small of my back as it is. Yep, swayback adjustments basically happening systematically here these days.

Do you too ever feel like sewing is like one long voyage of discovering new and previously unimagined fit adjustments? I do. As soon as my eye is fully trained to spot one issue and my brain and hands capable of correcting it, I notice something else. Like the monkey mind will get bored if it has no more new fit issues to agonise over. Ugh!

Anyway, once I was done with the bodice adjustments, sewing this up was a dream. The fabric was ordered from the lovely Maeve during a sale a couple of months ago, and has just the right weight for both easy sewing and wearing. I lined the bodice with some plain white viscose jersey as I didn't fancy trying to line stripes up on the inside too (the green would have shown through to the right side). I also added a knee-length lining to the skirt, which isn't in the pattern. It ends just above the slits in the skirt, and keeps things skimming smoothly over all the lumps and bumps and potential VPL in the tum/bum areas. I do have some slight neckline gaping on one side of the neck, but I think it might be down to a hollow-ish chest on my smaller-boob side rather than having stretched out the fabric (I reinforced it immediately after cutting). And the lining peeks out sometimes from one of the sleeves, which would no doubt not happen if I ironed it, but no. Not ironing it.

And in terms of wearing, well you've heard it from plenty of bloggers before: this dress is fabulously comfy and easy to wear. You just chuck it on and you're fully clothed, relatively stylish, and you get to swish around in a maxi feeling all fab. Those slits in the skirt are seriously good! I've got to say, I'm really impressed with the Closet Case patterns - I've made a couple this summer and have basically lived in them (more on the other soon!). The styles are great, the drafting spot on, and the sewing hits that sweet spot where challenging meets fun and they do a little happy dance together. I really enjoyed listening to Heather on Seamwork radio where she talks a bit about how she aims to pitch her patterns, in terms of both the styles and the sewing, and I think she's hitting it exactly on the head.

OK, I've been hesitating about asking this final question, but I'm just going to do it.  See when bodices have cut on kimono sleeves, like this pattern or, say, By Hand London's Anna dress. Do you find that the armpits get rather rapidly sweaty, compared to other 'normal' sleeves? Or do I just need to attempt lowering the armhole a bit??

And why is it that my right armpit apparently sweats more than the left one (I swear it!)? Am I a freak of nature???

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Baggy trousers

Part of the reason I sew is to push the boundaries of what I think I'll wear. Dungarees, dungashorts, pinafore dresses, oversized harem pant/skirt hybrids, massive Japanese drapey sleeves, novelty print Christmas dresses (respectively here, here, here, here, here and here)...

... and today we add to that list - baggy trousers!

It just adds to the sense of adventure: not only am I making it up myself, instead of wearing what a shop says I should, I'm also not very sure what the hell kind of look I'm going to end up with anyway. I like to keep my sense of (fashion) self on its toes, apparently.

So yes, baggy trousers. When I saw Marilla Walker's Mercury collection, I pretty instantly decided it wasn't for me - and it remains highly unlikely you (or anyone else) will ever see me wearing palazzo pants à la view C. But a little while after the pattern's release, I took a closer look at the pleated cuff of view D, and, well, you know how it goes - I was intrigued and got sucked in.

Turns out, I am now in fact a baggy trouser-wearer.

(Plus another Linden top, these things have multiplied through my wardrobe like nobody's business).

I really like these trousers. The cropped length is flattering and makes me feel a bit stylish for once, and the ankle pleats are just cool. My fabric is a nice fluid-but-not-too-lightweight viscose/linen mix, which means everything hangs beautifully. But herein lies my little dilemma with these (and incidentally, with my rockbuex too).  As Liesl points out in her wide-leg style file, trousers like this are generally designed to sit on the natural waist for best draping effect - and unfortunately, I'm just not really a high waist waistband wearer, even when they're elasticated. It's proportionally the thickest part of my body, and I'm long-waisted too, so all my life I've worn everything I possibly can further down towards my hips. Which in this case just doesn't work: the whole effect is ruined and en plus it's supremely unflattering.

So I'm getting used to it. Partly a simple matter of habit, and partly a question of pairing these trousers with tops more cropped than I've generally worn (I have a pile of t-shirt hems to shorten this weekend!) And the more used to it I get, the comfier these trousers become.

Make no mistake. These trousers are COMFY.

In an effort to illustrate this somehow, I took inspiration from Gillian and did some sitting pics. Not sure the coffee-drinking pose is that successful though tbh.

Here I clearly demonstrate how attempting to look casual and relaxed actually has the opposite effect.

How's this? And by the way - what do you think of the bench?? Husband and daughter ordered it on a whim in February, having fallen victim to the charms of some random catalogue that arrived with the post. It's a bench WITH A POP UP TABLE FOR DRINKS. Yegads life is so exciting as a garden furniture consumer these days, isn't it? What will they think of next?? Now all we need is some summer. Oh and an end to the permanent building works. Because after 10 years in our house it would be nice for most corners of our outdoor space to not still look like this:

But those pleats tho.

With bonus cat hair. Esmerelda says you're welcome.

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