Academy 2953, classic slacks.

This has been the year of mastering slacks and pants. These, 40s? (I think the pattern is from the 1940s, or early 1950s) slacks have become my new ‘go-to’ pants for day wear. I love the classic wide legged slacks that Katherine Hepburn made so iconic, and when I found this pattern, I could hardly wait to whip up a pair.

Close look:

I made a wearable test pair, partly to test my techniques, and to test fit, from wool, fully lined (which are waiting to be hemmed…..). When I was sure I had a good fit, I pulled out this lovely, lovely piece of linen my nana gave me. I don’t usually go for natural tones, but I wanted something breezy and elegant – and easy to wear for the beach and such.

I have been wearing these baby’s for a while now, and I just had to have a couple of photos on the way out the door. They are perfect and I love them! Yikes – possibly my most self conscious series of photos ever?! Austin attempting a cameo appearance too…

Did I mention the pocket? Now I cannot live without them. Pockets in all the clothes!

The hem is a wee bit long, which I see better in these photos… but they are super comfy and I’m very pleased. I have some more wool to make up a winter pair as well.

Technical details:

The pattern was a touch small, so I gave a little extra at the side seams of the pants, and let the front darts out a wee bit too. I made the belt a little higher, so more of a 50s waist there. If you can make out the front pleats from the pattern, the they are tacked in place, which looked a bit odd, so I unpicked them and left them as soft pleats. For a future version, I would just sew them as darts, pleats around the middle can be nice, but can also pucker around. Overall, easy to make and work with, this will become one of those well used patterns.

This was also the first time I have worked with linen, and oh my what a pleasure, I have enough to make a skirt or blouse. Such a lovely fabric to wear, wash and sew with, thank you nana!

Earlier this year I signed up for the Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge, and this is one of my projects, I’ll be adding to the group pinterest board shortly…

In a moment of enthusiasm and courage, I pledged to sew twelve garments using Vintage Sewing Patterns, it might not sound so preposterous when I note that my pledge was based , ahem, on completing projects I had already started using Vintage Sewing Patterns, and that I still so far only really use vintage sewing patterns….lets just say I have a few projects to document in the next week or so…