From skirts to trousers…. and beyond!

Shortly after New Year’s, we finished up drawing skirt patterns. In theory, I should now be able to draw up any type of skirt for any size and any posture. In practice, I’m not that confident yet. My first try at a maternity skirt was not really a success. But I’ll save that story for a different post.

After the skirts, we moved on to trousers. There’s a lot more to keep in mind when you’re drawing trousers! Let’s just say we’re not in Kansas anymore…

I won’t go into all the technical details, but I did learn quite some fun facts already, so I thought I’d share them with you:

• Don’t waste time and effort on drawing up your own jeans. You’ll never be able to process the fabric like the big brands do, it’s easier to just buy a pair and make some adjustments, if necessary. Of course, if you are like me, this fact may keep lingering in your head until, one day, you’ll yell ‘Challenge… accepted!’

• Don’t waste time and effort on drawing up (and sewing) fancy suit pants for men. The way in which the pockets and the lining need to be finished will take a lot of time and cause a lot of frustrations. Just buying a suit is a lot easier. And for this one, I don’t think you’ll ever hear me yell ‘Challenge accepted’… Sweat suit pants are a completely different story, of course. You can do whatever you want with those.
• Drawing up a pair of (simple) trousers for men is a completely different technique than drawing them up for women, apparently. All because we are built differently. During this class, we’re focusing on women’s trousers only, but I did find out one big difference between the two. Apparently, you can recognize a good tailor by the questions he/she asks his/her clients. Because a good tailor should always ask a man how it’s hanging. Literally. A good pattern and a good fitted pair of trousers provides some extra room on one side. We didn’t go into any details, so I have no idea what the pattern would look like, but I did find it intriguing. Of course, in a way, it’s logical, isn’t it? When we learn how to draw up skirts and dresses next year, we’ll provide the extra room for our breasts as well, after all.