Sewing plans for March! Having managed to get the coat finished in time has given me a bit of a boost, and I’ve decided on three new projects for the month, providing all goes well! I have some yummy fabric to use up, and I fancy some new, spring/summer appropriate trousers. Two are new patterns and one is a pattern I’ve used in the past, but haven’t made up in the last 5 years, so… Toile time!!
First, the patterns. I’ve been disappointed with Burda’s offerings this last year. If you’re not a skirt/dress person, there really isn’t much to make, unless you’re into lots of loose, floppy tops. But, there’s a pattern in the March magazine that interests me, and I think it might look good in the cotton/linen twill I got from Fabworks last month. The colour is even better in real life, so glad I got 3m!! It’s a sturdy fabric, the cotton definitely plays more of a role in the feel and body of the fabric than the linen does. Which means no flowing linen pants, but something with a bit more shape.
Pants 106 & 107 are basically the same pattern, but it’s 107 that I’ll go with. Only one little problem – no pockets! I’m sorry, but trousers need pockets!! So, I’ll toile them to check fit and length and whether or not I actually like them first, and then see if I can get pockets in there somewhere. I don’t think a patch pocket on the bum will look wrong, but I think the answer might be in-seam pockets.
With 3m of fabric to play with, I want to make something from a new-to-me company, Ottobre. I bought the 2020 Spring/Summer magazine and there’s a pair of trousers there I can see myself wearing – and guess what… It has pockets! It’s pattern #8, Utility Pants in cotton twill, so perfect for the fabric. These I’m definitely going to toile as I’ve never used this company before and hae zero idea of how they’ll fit. I am crossing my fingers though, I don’t want to have wasted the £11 for the book!!
And on to the third pair. This is a pattern I’ve use a fair bit, but forgotten I had until recently! My tailoring student had a question about frog mouth pockets and, after saying “what?” I found they were a popular shape pocket in the 60s in men’s pants, and favoured by James Bond! On seeing the photos, I remembered this pattern and hauled it out. It’s trousers 102 from the July 2009 Burda. It has the same pocket shape. I had thought I could use this pattern for the twill, but I think it’s too sturdy, but I also have some teracotta linen in the stash that I bought last summer…. I’ll toile the pattern because I have unfolded the shortenings, made too many contrasting pencil notes and drawn too many lines in the past over the seam lines to accommodate changing shapes! I’ll start with a straight 44 and see what needs to change from there.
I’m looking forward to making these! The weather is set to take a spring dip for the next few days, so it’ll be indoors anyway. Once I’ve finished my admin tasks, I’ll dig out the tracing paper and get cracking. Nothing better than sewing up a storm while the wind and the rain batter everything outside!
What March plans do you guys have??
THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS 
Enjoyed seeing your plans for the month, Anne, and particularly like the last pattern – with pockets! I’ve a few very nebulous thoughts for March, but predicting never works well for me, so will keep stum. 🤣
My plans are always very fluid, they flow from one month to another and don’t neccessarily end up being realised!
Know what you mean, as my “plans” do the same!
Never heard of a frog mouth pocket before but I like the shape! I have my eye on those trousers from March 2021 too so will be interested to see how you solve the pocket issue.
I’ve been very slow with the toiling – but the pattern is traced!
Thannks great blog post