I think everyone has heard of/seen/made the Lander pants by True Bias, and I’ve had the pattern assembled, traced and hanging around my sewing space for weeks while I admired those made by all the other sewists out there. Then Megan from Meggipeg gave me this rather lovely black wool blend fabric and I instantly knew what they were destined to become; yes, you guessed it – Landers!
I decided that I was going to be a bit smarter with this pattern and check it against my wide leg trouser block, which I had just used for this pair of trousers. Ignore all the changes on the block – I really need to trace a new, clean version but I truly hate tracing.
This is the back view. I pinned out the darts on both pattern pieces and laid my block on top of the pattern piece and it’s pretty clear why OOP trousers don’t fit me. I cut this huge wedge out of the crotch.
The front is closer to correct, but I was horrified to see how wide these trousers were at the sides, particularly at my hips. I reworked the sides, tapering them back out below the hips. 
Now anyone who has made these trousers will know that they are wide on the sides for a reason. I didn’t realise that the side seam allowance is 2.5cm so I gaily chopped it off to my usual 1cm. Can I say now that it didn’t end well! Luckily I was able to crib a bit of width by reducing the side seams to .5cms and letting out the centre back seam by .5cm. They fit, but only just! The extra wide side seams allow for quite a bit of adjustment and so I shall add them back in for the next pair.
It’s really hard to show these trousers because they’re black, but I think you can see that the back fits really well, with none of that strange bubbling I usually get on my inner thighs.
It’s really difficult to see anything from the front, but here they are anyway.
I wore them with a new Lotta Jansdotter Esme top made from some winter white pure wool that I got from a garage sale, and which cost nothing. I think it’s really for upholstery or something, it’s heavy and not drapey, but it’s warm. I managed to use the frayed selvedge and manually frayed the sleeve cuffs. I split the bottom hem and added my white curly scarf as it goes so well. It’s not my favourite top but has proven to be quite useful when the temperatures plummet – by Perth standards anyway!
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In spite of all my difficulties with these trousers I do like them a lot. I wasn’t sure how I would go with the button fly, but it’s fine. I do want to point out that my button game was strong; how well do the buttons go with this fabric? They came from a Morrison (local designer) sale and aren’t from the same fabric, but you’d never know. I bought a bag of these buttons in a couple of colours and I’ve used them on several things already.
These are my first, but definitely not my last pair of Landers. I am considering making them again from a slight stretch fabric, which would solve all my difficulties, although I do need to face facts and just retrace the pattern with the added seam allowance. I will get back to you on this.