Well let me welcome you back since last time we met here was last year, ha! Slowly getting back into blog mood after all the peace and quiet from the Holidays. Not that the machine had any rest, just the show and tell. In terms of sewing, last year was quite productive and my wardrobe appreciates it. It´s coming together rather nicely and I´ve been wearing homemade everyday quite proudly. Winter is always harder since warm knits are a must have and I haven´t really thought about knitting because it takes too long and I like the fast reward I can achieve with sewing; even a pair of pants, after the muslining phase, is something quite easy and a project for a couple of days in my turbo mode.

So, pants. Yep, hardest and scariest thing to fit just right. You take 0,3 from one side, then a wrinkle appears, go and add 0,5 somewhere else, now you´ve got a thousand wrinkles, gaaah! Well, this is just my dramatic self speaking. It´s actually a learning process where you understand what you´ve got to do and it´s a visual one too. I muslin first, usually a half muslin, meaning I make it shorts lenght with minimum detailing (no pockets, no zipper) and spend hours back and forth in front of the mirror pining and marking my alterations. It looks like it´s a lot of work because I´m an absolute beginner for fitting issues: I can do small alterations without a problem but pants really take a little extra work, specially if you´ve never done it before. But it´s like everything, you must try it to learn and improve.

I had been trying to suggest Sarah (Cali Faye Collection) to take the plunge into a pants pattern: I feel she has quite a good collection of patterns but one cannot live on skirts and dresses alone. I was thrilled to know she took the challenge and obviously it´s a total home run.

The Hampshire trousers have a lounge, baggy feel still with some classical detailing. Since they have no stretch, the waist and hips area are bound to have some wear pleats, which are totally acceptable and you also see on RTW. Depending on fabric used, you can make a more classical pair in light wool or try to recriate some chinos like I did with a light twill.

This pair is actually my wearable muslin, hence some detailing in white thread. The size is the xxxs which I think Sarah made specially for me (thank you!). I still have some front crotch wrinkles, though I lenghtened the crotch seam by 0,5cm, but it might need to lower a bit more. I tappered the legs also by removing 0,5cm from each seam, meaning I took in the side seams from the pocket down and the inseam starting at the hem and grading to none at the crotch area. Small alterations go a long way, notice that those 0,5 on each leg mean a total of 2cm, so it´s best to do them little by little rather than a big alteration all at once.

For lenght I removed about 10cm since I´m 1,57m and instead of the normal hem, I turned in the same amount and then folded out half of it and stitched in the ditch of the side seams to lock in place. My favourite feature are the welts that are beautifully explained in a visual tutorial. I did mine a little diferently by not having any stitching at sight but still securing all the welt parts in the wrong side of the pants.

There are no detailed shots of my sewing this time because well, I didn´t do a spectacular job in terms of detailing and trust me, I´m not depreciating my own work, please, it´s just as it is. I´ll gladly continue with it once I do a new pair soon.

You can get this and other of her great patterns here with 30% off your entire purchase with code 30HAMPSHIRE (ends 24/1 11:59pm EST)

This blog post contains affiliate links but all opinions are my own, as always.