I recently bought the latest men’s edition of la Maison Victor magazine and Mark chose four patterns that he thought he would like. I began by making the Jeff trousers, as I was a bit inspired by Andrew’s tap pants.
They are pretty straightforward, but have interesting design details. The front legs are divided into three horizontal sections and the back legs have two vertical sections. There are big pockets at the front and two back pockets. They have a faux fly and a knit waistband with drawstring.
I treated the first pair as a toile as I wasn’t sure of the sizing. I used some brown cotton drill with a tiny bit of stretch. I thought about that stretch but decided it wouldn’t be much of a problem.
Making the trousers was pretty easy. They went together brilliantly, all the notches lined up and I was enjoying doing all the topstitching and watching them come together. I basically had them finished all bar the knit waistband before I could persuade Mark to stop working and try them on. They swamped him! I had made them according to his measurements, and don’t know if it was the stretch, but I suspect not.
Unpicking commenced. I took in the centre back seam 3cms and ran in the inside legs a smidge. They are still too big, but I can just about live with it.
Needless to say Mark is thrilled and they are now his trousers of choice for walking and shopping.
I asked him to show the waistband and it took a few photos to capture it without showing his stomach, although he has an enviably flat stomach, I didn’t think you’d all want to see it!
The back is now much better
Having made the trousers and found them such a success, I decided to make the Isaac t-shirt. Whilst the trousers were too big, I know that Mark is deceptive at the top and I went for a larger size for the t-shirt.
The t-shirt also has some nice design lines, providing a good opportunity for colour blocking and scrap busting. 
Again I considered this t-shirt a toile, but thought I’d check the pattern against the normal t-shirt pattern I use for him before cutting it out. I noticed that the armscyes were really short. I scratched my head a bit as I felt I needed to add a lot. I checked the photos of the t-shirt in the magazine and could see bunching under the arms on the model. Hmm. I added 5cms to the front and back armscyes, which was simple and then had to add 5cms to the sleeve cap, which is not quite so straightforward. I took a deep breath and cut out the t-shirt using some lovely grey cotton knit from Morrison, a local designer who sells off surplus fabric a couple of times a year.
When I did a test try on when it was basically tacked together, Mark was delighted and told me that he wanted to wear it to go shopping half an hour later. No pressure then! Here he is in the finished t-shirt and the now ubiquitous Jeff trousers about to head off to buy me food.
There is no bunching under the arms, and the fit is perfect. I’m going to have to shoehorn him out of this ensemble if I ever want to launder it.
Both patterns are really nice, and have the good patternmaking I have come to expect from this magazine. I am off to trace off the shirt pattern now!