My latest trouser - lots of pictures

[Kiem]

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well.

I just finished my latest trouser today and wanted to share it. I made the shirt aswel.

charcoal brown wool flannel. I think I paid 20 euro per meter, really light weight, about 170 g m2. I wish I could find something heavier at a affordable price in the Netherlands. This cloths won't hold ironwork shape very nicely unfortunately. Then again, not sure how a proper cloth would hold its shape.

Single forward pleat (2 inch) with a fob pocket, 12 inch rise with double welt front pockets (I love these), and 2 inch turnups.
I had never made a fob pocket before so this was a fun new thing to learn and figure out.

Pics aren't too great but its what I have for now.

[Thom Bennett]

Very nice, good to see forward pleats as well. Very classic. Any chance of better pictures.

[Henry Hall]

Looks like good work from the last picture. Have you gone for German-style vertical jetted pockets? I've gone over to these for a lot of trousers now. It's easier to get a clean inside finish on the pocket bag with these and the tops of the side seams are left untouched for easier closing.

What's the draft?

I don't know where you are in NL, but I get all-wool flannel cheaper than €20 from the cloth markets. Usually €8-10. Always sure to take a lighter along to do a surreptitious burn test to make sure! I only buy expensive cloth (usually from England or Italy) when the customer is discerning and I know I'll get a good return.

[hutch--]

Hi Kiem,

They look good, classic design and should be comfortable as well.

[Kiem]

I live in Hilversum, pretty much right the centre of The Netherlands.
Most of my fabrics were bought online, some from Germany, some from online-shops in the NL.

The draft is from The modern Tailor outfitter and Clothier, with a small alteration giving me a little more room in the front fly so the pleats don't gape, and of course drafted for a forward pleat rather than a plain top.

I straightened the seat angle (on the trouser, not the pattern) quite a bit to make the seat fit more neatly, I think I might need to straighten it a bit more.

[Kiem]

[Kiem]

This is a trouser + waistcoat I made before. Bit heavier fabric, same pattern as the other trouser but slightly lower rise, about 11 3/4 inch.
Continuous waistband. The seat angle on this trouser is a bit more crooked than the other and needs some changes.

The dart on the waistcoat goes through the pocket as is usually done on coats (belly cut dart?). No particular reason other than wanting to try and find out how that works.
For the waistcoat I used Mansie Wauch's draft.























Any feedback is welcome! I have been figuring all this out myself with the help of whatever I can find on the internet.

[Henry Hall]

There is one thing I notice, and it's because I had the same problem initially with button-fly trousers: drag lines from the fly to the left hip. I think for me it was slight mismatching of holes/buttons on the fly, but perhaps also an imbalance between the room given to the fly compared to the waist. Also heavy machine stitching of layers on the fly.

[Kiem]

There is one thing I notice, and it's because I had the same problem initially with button-fly trousers: drag lines from the fly to the left hip. I think for me it was slight mismatching of holes/buttons on the fly, but perhaps also an imbalance between the room given to the fly compared to the waist. Also heavy machine stitching of layers on the fly.

Yeah they are quite noticeable. I am not sure why this is happening and I have not really looked into this before. I am very new to the more advanced fitting things.
It might very well be the buttons being slightly off. Is a perfect flat look possible in this area? I don't really have much reference points other than pictures I can find on the internet.

The fly is sewn in by hand using silk thread and a prick stitch.

Can you explain what you mean with the imbalance between room given to the fly compared to the waist?
Maybe its to do with the way I cut the dress, which I do differently than the draft suggests.

[pfaff260]

They look very nice! My compliments. I to love these forward pleats.
What could have happened with your fly is that the part with the buttonholes is finished with diagonal tape. This sometimes pulls.
I was making these kind of trousers as well with the help of vervaardiging van broek en vest written by T Leever and TH Ammerlaan.
And they warn tailors that this can happen, there advice is a flat seam. I myself prefer taping aswell.

[Henry Hall]

Where did you get the book De Vervaardiging van Broek en Vest?

[peterle]

The waiscoat fits really good and You did a nice job when matching the stripes in the chest pocket.  The classical method to do a vertical chest dart in a striped pattern is to position the dart center line centered between two pinstripes. It should be avoided to cut off a pinstripe at the top of the dart. Stripes are tricky. When you carry the dart through to the lower edge, the stripes between the pocket end and the side seam would´nt be interupted.

For the trousers: I think the diagonal creases at the front  are caused by a shifted  and thus pulling lining when you attached the buttonhole stand. You can cut the lining a bit bigger than the fabric  to aviod pulling. And when you sew the forward pleat, don´t catch the lining. Fold it by itself.

Generally for parts that fold inwards it also helps to give the inner edge a nice stretch with the iron to avoid any pulling.

I also think your back darts are a bit too long and too wide. They should end a bit above the widest part of the butt. On the striped trousers I can see they are more than 3 stripes wide. Generally when you have to remove more than 3-3,5cm in the back dart you should remove the rest with a smaller second dart between the first dart and the side seam.

How did you alter your pattern for the forward pleat?

[Kiem]

Thank you all for the comments and input, very much appreciated!

Thanks for the insight on the waistcoat dart!


My trouser dart is 3 cm wide and 11,5 cm long, It did some comparing to the draft and it seems to be a bit on the long side. Looks to be closer to 9,5 / 10 cm for 12" rise.
I think I might need to move the dart towards the centre back. My butt has flat sides and I think the dart might make more sense on the rounder part of my butt.

I was never able to figure out where to place the back dart and why to place them there, any insight anyone can give me??
As for length, this is also determined by shape of the butt?

On the pinstripe trouser, the dart runs parallel in the waistband area, maybe thats why It seems to be very wide. It really is 3 cm's wide max.










I made some drawings trying to explain how I altered the pattern for a forward pleat. I hope they make sense.
I keep my pleats parallel at the waistband. Length of the pleat is about halfway between the crotch and knee line.









As for the creases, I need to look into this. If I pull the buttonhole part of the trouser up slightly the creases disappear for the most part. Might be button misplacement.

On the other hand it might be the lining pulling as you mention.
Any way of avoiding this in the future? Maybe basting the button fly on including buttons to do a fitting?


As for the linings. Can you explain to me how the lining would be added to the foreparts?
I cut out my foreparts, baste on the lining, both through the crease line and along the side seams. Then I press the crease line and close the pleat by hand, sewing the cloth and lining together.

Would you add the lining AFTER closing and sewing the pleats?

Excuse all the questions, I find it rather hard to learn through words as I am so used to reverse engineer pictures and videos.

[Schneiderfrei]

test it again with the buttons undone.

[pfaff260]

@ Henry Hall. It was a present from my teacher. It's a photocopy. Maybe you can find it somewhere on the internet. Boekwinkeltje.nl sometimes has nice things.