Elephant Trousers!

Elephant Trousers!

19 June 2016

I am probably far too excited about these Elephant Trousers than I really should be at my age!  But I love them!

I made these funky elephant trousers!

I made these funky elephant trousers! Oh yeah!

So these are the brand new Carrie Trousers from Sew Over It, available only in their brand new Ultimate Guide to Sewing and Fitting Trousers online course.  The course includes the pattern for these trousers and the very popular Ultimate Trousers, which I’ve been wanting to make for awhile, but hadn’t got around to buying the pattern yet, which was rather fortuitous really!

Just hangin’ around, wearing my elephants!

Just hangin’ around, wearing my elephants!

The Carrie Trousers are the simpler of the two patterns so I thought I may as well start with those, especially since I knew of the perfect fabric to make them in.  This elephant print is a viscose which is one of the recommended fabrics for these trousers, and I could totally see myself swanning around Poole, wearing funky trousers with elephants parading around my legs!  I got the fabric from FabricLand, which is where I get most of my fabric from and they now have an online store!  Exciting!

I’m very happy to have elephants parading around my legs – can you tell!

I’m very happy to have elephants parading around my legs – can you tell!

I then realised I should really do a little bit of pattern matching on these, otherwise it would look like a dog’s dinner.  Oh, but I don’t do pattern matching!  But, I have bought a Craftsy class on pattern matching.  So I watched some of it, then had a bash!  Here are a few in progress photos:


I love how my slipper sneaked into this shot!

I love how my slipper sneaked into this shot!

Drawing elephants on my pattern pieces

Drawing elephants on my pattern pieces

Woo hoo! One piece cut out!

Woo hoo! One piece cut out!

The cutting out of my trousers took longer than the sewing.  I only ended up cutting one extra back and one extra front waistband piece.  So glad I bought loads of fabric!

So let me show you the front of the trousers:

I’m pretty proud of that pattern matching on the centre front seam!

I’m pretty proud of that pattern matching on the centre front seam!

And now: Where’s the pocket?

What pocket?

What pocket?

Oh, There’s the pocket!

Oh, That pocket!

Oh, That pocket! 

The other things I like about my pattern placement are the waistband:

No elephants on the waistband – you can have too many elephants on one pair of trousers!

No elephants on the waistband – you can have too many elephants on one pair of trousers!

and the hem:

The pattern at the hem ends the trousers nicely I think.

The pattern at the hem ends the trousers nicely I think.

Did I like the pattern?  Yes!  These trousers really aren’t the sort of thing I would wear normally, but when I started making them, I realised there is definitely a hole in my wardrobe when it comes to light, loose trousers for summer and these fit the bill perfectly. (Just need summer now . . . )

How was the sizing? I measured myself and found I was across two sizes, so I just made the bigger size.  I didn’t bother grading between the two because it was easier and they are loose fitting trousers, so I thought it would probably work out ok, and it did.  Although I did have to chop 2½” off the length of the waist elastic and it’s still a bit long, but since my trousers are in no way going to fall off, I’m not going to worry about it.

What was the online class like? I’ve just recently discovered Lisa Comfort’s vlogs, and I love them!  Her enthusiasm is great, she imparts her knowledge well, and her dog Poppy is always a slightly reluctant feature, which makes me laugh!  So when I saw her new online class I didn’t take much convincing to treat myself to it!  I’ve only watched the videos for the Carrie trousers so far and they really helped me to see what I was supposed to be doing at each step.  I know there are more detailed video lessons for the Ultimate Trousers, including fitting issues and ways to change the styling, such as adding a waistband, raising the waist, etc. so I’m looking forward to getting stuck into those.

Would I make this pattern again?  Well, probably not, but only because I don’t really need another pair of trousers like this right now.  If I did need another pair, yes, I would turn to this pattern.

So, now for a few more photos of me posing and being silly:

Looking at a big anchor

Hello anchor!

Gotta flip the hair up!

Gotta flip the hair up!

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