Yes, you may have judged from the title that this post does not have a happy ending, but I think it’s important to post about my fails – almost as important as posting about my successes. It’s been a while since I’ve had a project go straight into the donation pile without even hitting my wardrobe first, but it happens occasionally!
This started because I have gained a ton of weight over the past 6 months I’ve been suffering from Long Covid. Not only have I not been able to exercise, I’ve barely been able to sit up or walk 5min for most of this time, so my waist in particular has ballooned up by several sizes.
As a result, very few of my trousers still fit me, so I desperately needed to sew some more. And rather than sew some to a new, much bigger size which I don’t intend to stay in for long, I thought I’d try a pair of wrap trousers since they could adjust more easily with a changing waistline.
I’d bought the Named Astrid trousers a few years ago in one of their Advent sales, but it’s now OOP (don’t get me started on pattern companies that make digital patterns out of print rather than continue making them available!!) and I actually made the shorts version of these back in 2020 but they went to the charity shop because I wasn’t wearing them. I had to laugh because in that blog post I said I’d never ever sew the full trouser version, yet here we are! Also, I have zero memory, clearly. Like, Melissa, why not think about the reasons why you weren’t wearing these??
I used a sage green lightweight cotton fabric from New Craft House on clearance (£6/m but really narrow, and now no longer available), which I felt would do well to not add too much bulk to the layers at the waist while still being quite flowy for the wide legs.
Behold, the most unflattering trousers known to mankind! And this was after altering the crotch curve to my TNT, unpicking the CF join to try and relax it a little, and fussing about with it on the dressform.
See? They look just as bad on the dressform – it’s not a fit issue, but a poor design that creates the “crotch arrow” V as far as I can tell…
These trousers are a huge fail: besides the obvious crotch arrow, they make me look so wide and short. Basically, all the reasons I hated and avoided all wide-legged trousers for years before the Claudia NYE set changed my mind last fall.
I only finished them enough to go to a charity shop (not hemmed – left long for future owner), without even wearing them once.
Before you comment: Do not tell me how I “could’ve saved them”! I literally do not care, I have a brain, I could’ve fixed them. But after seeing HOW BAD they looked on me, I didn’t want to throw any extra effort into these. Even if they became the best trousers ever, I’d still feel bad every time I’d look at them. Also, please do not say “But you don’t look like you’ve gained weight!”. Again, I have eyes and a tape measure, and I only select the photos from my photoshoots that are most flattering.
Begone Fail Trousers, and take your bad vibes with you!
(But I did make a different pair after these that I’m really happy with, so stay tuned!)
