I’ve been wanting a pair of red trousers for a very long time and I had some cotton drill to make a wearable toile of the Vanessa trousers.

They are described as

“Lightweight woven pants with full elastic and drawstring waistband, tapered leg, slanted hip pockets and faux fly. A waistband inset keeps center front flat and allows for a cute color accent.

• A: Hemmed at ankle length
• B: Elasticized cuffed hem”

This was exactly what I was looking for – a pair of casual pull on trousers in a woven fabric.

I have quite a lot of elastic with the drawstring embedded in it, so I decided to use that in the waistband. You can just see it here in my very first try on. They look quite well fitting don’t they?

I think I’ve said before that trousers are a big fitting problem for me and I usually lay my trouser block over the pattern to check it out. For some reason I only checked the front pattern piece and it looked ok, so I made them and took a couple of photos. Hmm, not bad at the front, but so baggy at the back!

I wore them for a day in case I could learn to live with them

They were comfortable for floor activities with Miss G but I decided they had to be modified. The question was how. I wanted to keep the wide lower leg, so a centre back leg seam wouldn’t work (thank you for the suggestion, Katherine, sewblooms), so I fiddled around and in the end I decided that the only option was to take them in at the sides. I had two goes at this:

Front looking good, but still not happy with the back.

Take two, taken in a bit more.

I can live with this. I took in 5cms on either side so can only conclude that I got the sizing wrong! In spite of the massive increase in the seam allowance, the pockets still work well and they are much more comfortable. I tapered the seams to the knee so I didn’t make them too skinny at the bottom. I may put back pockets on the next pair which will disguise my lack of derrière.

I also felt they were a bit short so when I was making the other modifications I added the cuffs but didn’t put elastic through them. I get annoyed when I can’t get me feet out of my trousers quickly!

All that remained was to wear them, and I have worn them twice more since.

First I wore them with my new wool zero waste top. I really like this combination. the crocheted scarf made from naturally dyed yarn goes really well.

I love black and red as a combination so I thought I’d try them with my black felted Pattern Union Cora top.

It was chilly so I wore my Burberry cowl – I saw this in a shop in London years ago and thought I could definitely make it, and then I found the pattern on Ravelry. I made this from leftover wool, and made a friend a light coloured one, which is much more Burberry like.

And finally, the obligatory shown seated photos. They all look the same, I couldn’t choose one, so you get them all!

I will make another pair of these if I can find suitable fabric in my stash, as they are the sort of trousers I reach for all the time. To confirm this I wore them on the day of posting with my Xanthea zero waste top made from Liberty fabric bought in LA when @Pammyoh took me shopping.

Your special treat today shows a standoff between Heidi and Felix (they have a love/hate relationship), and Miss G not understanding the meaning of the word “gentle”! I edited out her looking at me as she clearly knows she shouldn’t grab great handfuls of fur!