When you live in trousers, they’re not simply a wardrobe basic, they’re an essential item! I decided to add some pleated trousers to this year’s Autumn/Winter wardrobe, and have finally made something from one of the Burda magazines from this year. Burda have, unfortunately, not exactly been exciting this year. Only a couple of patterns have caught my attention, and until August, none caught it enough for me to actually bother to trace. But this pair is different, it’s 119 from August 2021. What caught my eye was the small pleats on the front, the neat waistband and tapered leg.
I traced the 44 and 42 and made an adjustment to the height of the waistband. While I liked the neatness of it, I also knew I’d prefer a slightly deeper waistband. I toiled the 44, but started grading towards the 42 from the hip down. The toile was successful, I only had a couple of adjustments to make.
- Not making my usual shorten the length adjustment – this style should be slightly cropped, but it’s heading to winter and I don’t want cold ankles!
- Altered the CF line – straightened it a bit so it was 5mm further out at the top, giving me an extra 1cm overall.
- Took in the inseam by 1cm front and back from crotch to knee.
- Made the waistband 1cm deeper.
The adjustments have worked well, I like the fit on these, so will be making another pair soon. I will, however, make them a little longer. The length looks good, and while it’s not freezing, they’re fine, but I want a longer pair! So the next pair will be 3cm longer. Looking at the photos, I think I need to take in a bit more on the inseam, it looks a bit baggy there, but I also need to remember that these are not supposed to be skintight!
In toiling, I realised there’d be a lot of bulk at the waistband from the pockets, so I cut a pocket facing for the back pocket piece and rifled through the stash of scraps for a lightweight bit of pretty cotton. I found I had just enough to cut the rather-large-for-Burda pockets from the pretty stuff, and only tiny bits leftover to head into the stuffing bag. These inseam pockets are a really good size, phone in one and mask and card wallet in the other, with space to spare for hands!
The trouser fabric is a cotton twill in Mocha bought from the Rag Shop in August, I don’t think they have any of that colour left now. It’s Kobe cotton twill, and it’s also one of those fabrics you need to be sure to wash inside out. I washed the trousers after the first wearing without turning them inside out and the creases formed while washing have lost a bit of colour. This means that all folded edges will lose colour too. I wouldn’t mind if it was a cheap, £7/m fabric, but it wasn’t. I haven’t bought a Robert Kaufman fabric before, and it might be joining Lady McElroy fabrics in the “avoid” pile due to colour fade. It’s beautfully soft though, and lovely to wear. Just watch the colour fading.
I wore these for the first time on a long weekend trip to York, they were very comfy to wear traipsing round the city all day. They’ve since been worn a few times and I really do like the pattern. I know Burda don’t have the best sizing these days, they used to go from a 34 to a 46 in the “everybody” section of the magazine, but these are just 36-44. I feel they are trying to save money by reducing the sizes available, the number of patterns in the magazine and the quality of the magazine paper itself. It’s a shame, as the old magazines were fabulous! Perhaps a revisit of those older magazines is in order.
In the mean time, I’ve traced a jacket pattern from the August issue to toile, I have a retro (90s) pair of Burda trousers to show you and I have Lander pants to make for both girls – not to mention a VikiSews blouse for daughter no1 and a Bellatrix blazer for each of them. Thank godness the garden and allotment have stopped shouting for my attention!
THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS 
Those are really lovely pants! Still working up the courage to try sewing a pair. And working on getting my sewing mojo back… 😦 I love sewing but these days I feel like I suck at it and so why try. Seeing amazing people like you sew such lovely pieces is inspiring… Thank you for posting! ❤️
Start with a pair that isn’t too fitted in the leg and body, wide legged trousers are perfect for this. You’ll get paractice doing pockets, zip and waistband, as well as getting a hand on the general construction. All that really needs to fit then is the waistband! Loose, wide legged trousers don’t need the fine nitty gritty of fitting in the same way as other pants. I hope you find something to make that makes you feel better soon x
Great advice, Anne – thank you!
If I ever try a similar trouser pattern will try to remember it. 😉
These look great. But then, all your trousers look great! Shame about the colour fading.
What a shame about the fabric because they look really good in your photos. Nice to hear they’ve got good pockets too! I’ve been disappointed in Burda for the last few months as well, but earlier this year I was really liking them so hopefully it’s temporary. I read in the comments on Doctor T’s blog that the cost of paper has shot up which probably explains the drop in the paper quality; it does feel a lot cheaper.