Today I’ve got my review of the Mitchell Trousers by Closet Core Patterns. And, as you can see, I’ve gone for subtle and understated!

Ha!

Hmmmm, where to start with a pair of bright pink party pants?

High waisted wide-legged pleated front trousers are an absolute wardrobe staple for me. If I had to chose a single garment which makes me feel good – this is what I would choose. I still remember the first time when, as a teenager, I put on wide-legged trousers, rather than the “skinny” leg shaped which was mercilessly in fashion at the time, and thought, “holy shit, there are pants out there which actually suit me”!

In short, while of course there are no rules about what anyone should or shouldn’t wear, on my own body, where I often feel very aware that my thighs are the widest part of my body and my legs are proportionally shorter than my torso, high-waisted wide-legged trousers are the perfect panacea – making my legs appear longer and flowing down straight from the widest point of my body.

All of which is just a long-winded way of saying that high-waisted, wide-legged trousers are important to me!

Which is why I was very excited when Closet Core Patterns released the Mitchell Trousers.

I would also emphasise, right from the start, that I’m definitely no stranger to sewing high-waisted pleated wide-legged trousers. Let’s see, I’ve sewn the Bisque trousers by Vivian Shao Chen, the Tatjana trousers by Just Patterns, the Megan Nielsen Flint pants and a Burda Style one.

And if you take the pleats out of the equation, there’s also the Closet Core Pietra Pants and the Persephone Pants to add to the equation, and maybe even my beloved Arthur Pants!

In short, for me, wide legged pants are my jeans. It’s basically what I would like to wear every day.

Which is why, even though there is no shortage of wide-legged pleated trousers in my pattern stash, I wanted to try these out. For me, the key selling point was when Closet Core noted that the crotch curve is based on that used in the Pietra Pants. As I find my Pietra Pants to be the most comfortable pants I have ever worn, that was the point that I clicked “BUY”. I was also intrigued by the idea of skipping the waistband, for a really clean finish.

My Mitchell Trousers

The Mitchell Trousers are available in Closet Core’s extended size range, meaning they cater for a maximum hip size of 160cm (63cm).

I found it a bit of challenge to decide which size to make for my Closet Core Mitchell trousers.

My body measurements had me between a 14 and a 16 at the waist.

But the area where I often experience fitting issues is my thighs, so I was very eager to see what would be the finished measurements around the upper thigh to help guide my choices. Unfortinately, while the pattern provides an extended array of finished measurements, it doesn’t provide this one. I guess this is likely because the pleat influences the size and movement of the worn pants so much in the upper thigh that the measurement risks being misleading.

So, instead, I took my body measurement across the widest part of my thighs and pretended that it was my hip measurement. I figured that, this should guarantee sufficient room and it would be better to go too big than too small.

So I ended up cutting in between the size 14 and size 16 lines at the waist and grading to a size 18 at the hip.

In the end, these pants ended up being too big at the waist – I took them in at the side seams by 1.5cm – but this could have been because of my fabric choice (more on that later). But I really like the fit and shape with the size 18 leg. It’s just how I like my wide-legged trousers !

Pretty in Pink

So, do you remember how I said that I am something of an aficionado of the high-waisted wide legged pleat front pant?

My absolute favourite of the genre is actually a RTW garment – I adore the Theophile Trousers by Sezane. I own these RTW trousers in a few different colours but one colour which I have always wanted but is permanently sold out in my size is this fuschia Barbie pink colour!

And so, when I saw the Mitchell trousers, I figured that if Sezane wasn’t going to manufacture enough in my size, I would have to just make my own! Except, you know, not out of polyester!!

So I was very chuffed when, after keeping my eye out for a while, I found this fuschia viscose blend crepe at The Fabric Sales in Belgium. It was perfect for what I wanted. I was attracted by the fact that it is actually very weighty (375gsm) so it would make for a winter-ready pair of pants. It also has some stretch to it – which is not what the Mitchell trousers is designed for but I thought it might give some extra comfort.

It turned out to be a very good fabric choice for this pattern but I would offer a few caveats. Some steps of the sewing process were difficult in such a thick fabric (e.g. the ties and threading the D-rings) and it definitely ended up bulky in parts. You might want to be aware of this at the outset if you’re dreaming of the Mitchell Trousers in a thick wool, for example.

The other factor is that if you do substitute in a fabric with stretch, be prepared to adjust the waist sizing a bit, which is what I had to do. If you sew the version with the ties on the side, this built-in flexibility can help a bit too.

Sewing the Mitchell Trousers

So, after a long winded story about why I chose the fabric and the pattern, let’s get down to some sewing, shall we?

I found the sewing straightforward and experienced no issues.

I would note, however, that it doesn’t feel like an “easy” project, because you basically end up starting with three rather intense steps in a row.

After being eased in by making the optional ties, boom, you’re straight into detailed sewing with the (optional) welt pockets. Then, when you’re finally finished those, you do a little happy dance while you admire your handiwork and scream at the people you live with “I made WELT POCKETS”.

With a mixture of pride and relief, you check the instructions for what happens next and see that you’re jumping straight into the pleat, front pocket combination, which is again a bit of an involved step (the pockets are lovely and big BTW).

Then, when you’re feeling like you have thoroughly defeated all possible pockets and deserve to go onto something easy, you drop straight into the fly construction!

So while sewing the Mitchell trousers wasn’t overly difficult at any stage, it felt like you had three intense steps, followed by a walk in the park to finish things off!

My only moments of frustration in the sewing process were entirely me-made.

At one point, because I was so engrossed in a watching a Netflix series (Extraordinary Attorney Woo!) on my phone and didn’t want to stop it to read the instructions, which were also on my phone, I assumed that a little bit of fabric above my fly shield was just an error and trimmed it off unthinkingly. Turns out that was the seam allowance to which I was supposed to attach the waist facing.

So I had to engage in a convoluted unpicking of the fly shield to make it slightly smaller, so that I had some fabric to attach my waist facing to. And then had to readjust the pants on the other side so that they would meet in the centre.

You know those moments – one absent-minded snip of the scissors, hours of work fixing it up!

I also suffered the wrath of the sewing goddesses when I had finally finished these Mitchell Trousers late on a Sunday night and I opened my draw searching for the bar and hook I knew was in there, as the final step of the whole project.

Except, it wasn’t in there!

Aghhhh! Placing an online order and knowing you won’t be able to finally finish until the end of the week is far less satisfying than finishing a Sunday night with a complete project.

I chose to blame that missing bar/hook for my bad mood at work for the entirety of that week!

Now, apart from “think before you cut” and “check your notions drawer”, my only practical tip is that, if you are adding the ties and d-rings, do everything you can to find d-rings in the recommended size.

Unlike me.

I couldn’t find any at my local store, so I purchased some that were a half centimetre smaller. I duly altered the size of the ties, but my issue is that, in my thick fabric, it can be a bit of a challenge to wrangle my ties through the D-ring.

OK, so, as someone who is entirely obsessed with wide legged pleat front trousers, what is my final verdict on the Mitchell Trousers.

Honestly I love them!

These are the best fit I’ve had straight out the envelope for this style. If (when) I sew them again, there’s only one small fitting adjustment I want to make to my next pair. After having worn these, they do give me a occassional wedgie (particularly if I’m on my hand and knees on the floor cutting out a pattern – as me how I know?) and aren’t quite as comfy in the back of the crotch curve as my beloved Pietra pants. So I want to scoop out the back crotch curve to be a slightly more roomy d-shape, to really achieve crotch curve perfection.

The one little part where I am still in two minds is whether I will use the ties and d-ring in a future version. On the one hand, as someone whose weight fluctuates even throughout a day – additional flexibility is highly valued.

On the other hand, I don’t really like the way that the excess of the tie just hangs down at my side when I wear these.

Maybe I need to create a small loop to place on the tie which could hold the excess parts of the tie smoothly against the body (kind of like on a belt).

But that sounds kind of hellish to do in my thick fabric. I’ll provide an update to this post if I get around to doing it.

So, final verdict, despite being someone who owns about ten pairs of high-waisted pleated front wide-legged trousers, there is absolutely room for the Mitchell Trousers in my wardrobe and I would not be at all surprised if this pattern eventually ends up as a TNT for me!