slacks!

i totally made some slacks. they are wool and they are great. they are great because nice wool slacks are like pajamas that you wear all day.

anyway, the pattern is from the burda website. i chose burda because they seem to make nice patterns for somewhat fitted and stylish men's clothes. as opposed to the other three pattern companies that seem to think men only wear pajamas, boxers and vests (dang old pattern companies). i also chose this pattern because i was intrigued by the download and print it yourself set up and the $4 price tag. trouble is that printing a three foot wide, yard and a half long image at kinko's isn't cheap. in fact it is expensive enough that i am embarrassed to say anything more about it.  but i now have access to the pattern as a pdf, which is rather reassuring as paper does tend to deteriorate after you stick a bunch of pins in it.

i started out with a muslin- basically a quick, half-assed mock up, which was a great plan because, though my waist suggests the smallest size, my womanly hips desire a little more room. i added to the pattern (and referred to the pdf quite a bit to see how the pattern changed from one size to the next) and scaled up the underwhelming front pockets while i was at it. (in that first photo you can see the little taped on additions.)

and then i made them out of wool suiting:

a picture of my crotch

as i mentioned above, burda patterns are nicely drafted and, even with my modifications, all the pieces fit together perfectly. that is, when i could figure out exactly how they fit together. see, burda is a company out of germany (i think) and instead of hiring a translator to translate the instructions, they lock a monkey in a room with a german-english dictionary and an ibm selectric and see what comes out. this usually isn't too big an issue because you can mostly get by on the pictures. but then you get to a really complicated part, like the zipper. and as you struggle to comprehend, you realize that the monkey was really phoning it in for that step. or maybe drunk. the harder the task, the less sense the instructions make.








but i more or less figured it out.

a picture of my butt

i will certainly use this pattern again, though probably with heavier modifications. all the pockets, even the ones i enlarged, are still depressingly small and the back pocket buttons really cut in to the usable space. the belt loops could also use more careful placement (and maybe a couple extra loops while we're at it). i will probably also include a fifth pocket as that is where i carry my little pocket knife. oh, and i'm planning to use this pattern for a new pair of shorts. summer rapidly approaches.