On Trousers...
I must keep reminding myself that yes, I can in fact, make trousers. Rather decent ones. I always shy away from them, and think 'oh no, I shouldn't try that...' and I couldn't say why. I look at a fly front and think 'OMG I don't know how to do that!' and then WTF yes I do, I've done it before. I figured it out in freaking highschool. My first pair of trou were copied from an old pair of dress pants I ripped apart and used as a pattern. Fly front, pockets, waistband and all. I couldn't do nice button holes, so instead of a button at the top of the fly, the waistband extended into a tab that went into a Bakelite buckle. If I hadn't broken the buckle in packing for college I would probably still be wearing them.
...Or not because they were very gothy black denim with red stitching...everywhere! There was also a matching mini backpack. >.< It was highschool don'tjudgeme. I also recall not entirely understanding adding a little extra seam allowance because the hips, bum, and thighs of those trousers were skin tight.
The funny thing is that's the first and last time I made a pair of serious conventional pants. The rest have been pajama pants. There was that one pair of drop front knickers I suppose. And I threw together a pair of flowy wide legged light wool pants last year, but they were so very basic, eight dart, top facing, and an invisible side zipper. They are pretty popular though.
In thinking about it, I find a lot of hesitation comes from never being taught trousers at all; how to pattern well, how to alter to a good fit, that sort of thing. At FIT, the associate program, (the first two years of general fashion design,) almost entirely omitted trousers of any kind. The only thing we ever did with bifurcated garments was a very brief overview of a basic pant with darts, which was only pinned together in muslin, and then told we shouldn't bother with pants. I find that a very unfair failing on the program's part. Perhaps it has changed now, as there were a large number of complaints from us trouser wearing harpies. After that I went into lingerie where the only pants we needed were either pajama or pantIES. Skivvies don't count.
Anyway. Today I'll be patterning a pair of Katharine Hepburn-esque jeans out of a nice Indigo denim with a bit of stretch. Sighing at the fact that even I shop at Mood from time to time. For some reason the price of denim was reasonable, most at $8 a yard, $10-$12 for very heavy, or novelty. I was amazed. And even I must grudgingly admit that their fabric quality is consistently very good.
All about how bifurcated garments make me nervous.
Anyway, I'm going to go have a walk before it starts bucketing down again.