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Hello everyone.

I am super excited to share these trousers that have turned out to be a very wearable muslin. I bought this pattern about a year ago now and never got round to  it from fear of the dreaded crotch seam. However I thought these were fairly harmless in that they don’t have a fly front which in my head makes me feel like it would be an Alien vs Predator scenario (I cant decide which I would be in that scenerio) Anyhow……

Butterick B5895 is described as semi-fitted, tapered jeans (rolled-up, wrong side shows) have waistband, side front pockets, stitched hems, and back zipper. The high waist attracted me like a moth to a flame :-). Before I cut out the pattern I meticulously checked my measurements against the finished garment measurements on the pattern sheet. Using those I cut  size 8 on the front and a size 10 for the back pieces. Had I used the pattern envelope measurements I would have cut size 12 which would have had way too much ease. My rationale for cutting 2 different sizes was that I have a sway back so in order to avoid the need for a swayback adjustment I would make the front smaller so it would ‘pull‘ the back in….. I am struggling to make it sound sensible but that’s what I thought at the time I was cutting. By the way this is in no way is this a proven hypothesis – I was just going by my gut.

Next up was finding a suitable toile fabric from my stash. I had this black sateen fabric that I bought from an Essex (Boreham specifically) car boot sale for only £1/meter. Its 100% cotton with some stretch on the crosweise grain. It has this cute clover leaf design on it. Because I got it so cheap I didnt mind experimenting with it – though as I started sewing with it I quickly realised that this is actually a really great quality fabric. It takes a stitch so well and makes for lovely crisp corners. I need to learn to dissociate price from quality. Do you do that as well? Automatically assume poorer quality based on how much you spent on it? I digress

Once cut out I basted it together to check fit and I was pleased that it was looking ok so far. Ready to move on to construction I interfaced the pocket edge so they wouldn’t stretch out. Topstitching this was my absolute favourite part – it came out so neat and professional looking – I was well chuffed. To be honest the construction was so much easier that I had thought. It went by so fast and the next thing I knew I was at the zip stage. I interfaced the seam where the zip was going (I read this somewhere). Basted the zip in first to make sure it was flat then whoosh! it was done. I used a hook and bar for the waistband as I didn’t want a button. I also interfaced the hems for a crisp hem.

Pictures…..

Butterick B5985 Trousers

Butterick B5895

Trying to do a Boden-esque shot. Butterick B5895

B5895. The topstitching was fun to do.

Waistband detail. Butterick B5895

Invisible zip and accidental pattern matching on lower butt region 🙂

I am so pleased with how these turned out and you can bet I have already cut out another pair. They get a lot of wear with boots over them at the moment but I am really looking forward to warmer weather when I can wear them as capri pants 🙂

Verdict: Best. Wearable. Muslin. Ever.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Sewing and I hope you have a lovely Easter holiday! I plan on cutting a lot of projects out this weekend. Gotta get into that stash. What will you get up to this long weekend?

Hila

XoX