Today I’m back with my second version of the Tatjana trousers by Just Patterns. You can read all about my first version here.

Just for full disclosure, I received an advanced copy of this pattern for free. The fabric, time, printing and opinions are all my own!

BTW, I have no issue telling my readers if I received a pattern or fabric for free and will always do so. After all, I am obliged to be transparent about this kind of information!

But I can’t help but feel that receiving “freebies” in the sewing community is a bit different than in other areas. When I receive a free pattern for example, I’m receiving something with a retail value of usually about $15, but the printing and fabric that I then pay for myself to create the garments usually dwarves the value of the initial free gift, not to mention the value of my time. All of which is to say that I think that, given all these personal investments, the notion that we might give biased reviews of products received for free is perhaps less than in the non-sewing world.

What do you think?

At least for myself, receiving a pattern for free isn’t going to stop me from being annoyed if I waste precious fabric and time on something that doesn’t work, so I feel that receiving a pattern for free doesn’t make me any less likely to be open and honest about my views.

None of which is presently especially relevant, however, since I do think the Tatjana Trousers are a great pattern!

Ok, I think I’m setting the theme for this blog post already, I might be going off on some tangents today!

RTW inspiration

This pair of Tatjana trousers were entirely inspired by the gorgeousness of a pair of RTW trousers I recently bought.

They are one of the best fitting RTW pants I’ve ever worn and they left me wanting to use my sewing super power to add something similar in other colours to my wardrobe.

Because sewists can do shit like that!

And the Tatjana Trousers were the extremely obvious starting point for this exercise, given that they are really very similar in details and cut.

Before we start, I would like to confess that I’ve always felt funny sharing RTW-only outfits on instagram. I’m here to share sewing and making, not simply “fashion” for the sake of it and, whilst the sewing world is definitely not immune to mass consumption, it feels as though sharing what I’m wearing if it’s not me-made is wading into new depths of fuelling the mass consumption machine. Sharing RTW only outfits on social media feels uncomfortable for me.

I’ve also feel that I largely engage in social media to view sewing content. Apart from a bit of knitting, I basically don’t look at anything else. So I perhaps assume (who knows, if correctly) that lots of others in the online sewing community are similarly minded and don’t really want to see non-sewing stuff.

Yet, I was also wondering recently whether I am importing a certain bias into the notion that it is not worth sharing outfits which are not me-made. Am I falling into the trap of denigrating clothing choices as vacuous and shallow? After all, as an avid listened to the Dressed: The History of Fashion podcast, I am convinced that what we choose to wear matters. And that doesn’t change regardless of whether you made it yourself or not.

In view of these musings as to whether I was inappropriately cutting RTW out of my social media space, I recently conducted a poll asking whether people were interested in seeing photos of outfits which were RTW only, and about 75% of people were. But what I found most interesting was a few DMs I received pointing out that by only sharing me-mades, it gives the impression that I’m always wearing them. And that, for people at different stages in their sewing journey, it’s reassuring to see that we all wear RTW some of the time.

So, all of this thought tangent is merely to say that I definitely don’t wear me-made all the time.

My kingdom for some wool

The key challenge in making a pair of wool trousers is finding the right wool.

I must say that I find wool to be a particularly challenging fabric to purchase online. I’ve had so many instances where I have tried to purchase wool online and what has arrived has no resemblance to what I had imagined.

I find that when shopping for wool, there is plenty available in the domaine of lightweight suiting wool. And for coating wool, the sky’s the limit.

But wool of the right thickness and weight for classic, thick wool trousers can be hard to spot. At least online!

I have also found that even using the gsm is not necessary a great indicator when purchasing wool as different fabrics can be put together in such vastly different ways. A very finely woven wool can be drapey and lightweight to wear and can actually have a very similar gsm weight to a loosely woven chunky wool, even though the two fabrics can be world’s apart in terms of what you can do with them!

Wool is also sufficiently expensive that it’s also a high-risk exercise.

Pre-Brexit, Fabworks Mill in the UK used to be my go-to for these kind of purchases due to their huge selection of wools at great prices. Since they were so affordable, it wasn’t a big deal if something wasn’t exactly what I had thought it would be. But post-Brexit they are no longer shipping to Europe so this wool life-line is gone 🙁

In Europe, I struggle to find places where I can purchase wool for less than 25-30 euros per meter at an absolute minimum, making it a significant investment!

In order to find the fabric for these Tatjana Trousers I decided to do things the “right” way and ordered about 20 samples of different types of wool from Stragier, who have a wonderful selection.

I was really glad I did as the fabrics which I had thought were going to be the best were not. Long live the power of the fabric sample!

The fabric I ended up using is this wool flannel. It matches that of the Theophile Trousers from Sezane very well – the texture is extremely close and the fabric is just the tiniest touch heavier than Sezane’s version.

Warning: this fabric was not cheap, which will bring to a few conclusions later on about whether it is really worth making our own clothes…

My wool Tatjana Trousers

Alright, so let’s get into the details.

My Tatjana Trousers are a size 48. The pattern goes up to size 56, with the largest size accommodating a waist of 114cm and hip of 140cm.

I used my RTW trousers as a guide as to a few modifications I wanted to make to the pattern for this version.

After making my first pair of Tatjana Trousers, my view was that the leg was still not quite wide enough for my shape.

When I compared the Tatjana Trouser pattern pieces to the leg shape from Theophile, I saw that they were quite a bit wider than the Tatjana. So I used my Theophile trousers as a guide to alter the shape somewhat at the side seam. For most of the length of the leg, I’m using a leg line that corresponds roughly to two sizes up of the Tatjana pattern or me.

Around the hips and waist, I didn’t alter anything in Tatajana, except for the cosmetic adjustment of making the belt loops a little longer and wider.

I also lengthened the Tatjana Trousers by a couple of inches as I felt that my first pair turned out too short. Having said that, I can also see that I have cuffed this pair a too short, so I will go back in and lengthen by about an inch before I start wearing these.

If there is one sewing mistake I am capable of making over and over, it is hemming my pants too short!

I also added a cuff to these. I did this by first turning the entire leg inwards by several inches, then turning back out again to create the cuff and hand-sewing it in place. I think I saw this done in the latest season of the Great British Sewing Bee.

Adding a lining to pants

The main change which I made to my Tatjana Trousers, however, was adding lining to them.

In all honesty, this step kind of terrified me. Lined trousers feel so darn fancy.

And I had hoped I might be able to offer you a clear guide to how to do this.

But, in the end, I definitely ended up “muddling through” and can offer you more of an idea of what not to do, than what to do.

The main challenge was finding fabric which was appropriate to line the pants. The RTW trousers are actually lined with a lightweight cotton, rather than something slippery, which surprised me somewhat. Nonetheless, the starting point for my lining mission was something more traditionally “slippery”.

Yet, compared to a jacket or a skirt, I think you need to be aware that very light linings might not be able to handle all the friction and rubbing of, you know, being part of a pair of trousers! Yet, you don’t want something that adds too much bulk.

How to find the balance?

I initially purchased an acetate lining and when it arrived it just felt absolutely horrible. There was no way I was going to put that against my skin, especially when I had spent so much money on lovely expensive wool.

I ended up just settling on a viscose that I had in my stash and used that for the lining. It worked alright but, in all honesty, is probably a tad too thick and adds more bulk than necessary.

At one point, while trying to press my side seams, I had the musing that if I were to invent a sewing super hero alter ego, she would be called “Bulky at the Seams”. Which should probably give you an idea of the kind of thoughts running through my head as I tried to line these Tatjana Trousers.

In terms of actual process, adding the lining is basically just a matter of re-making the leg pieces, but without the pockets and ensuring that details like pleats and darts are pressed in the opposite direction to the shell so as to minimise bulk. I made the length of my lining about 5 inches shorter than my shell and attached the shell and lining together at the bottom with a thread chain of a few inches long.

The biggest challenge was attaching the lining to the shell at the fly and it was here that I utterly failed. In the end, mine is simple attached by some hand-stitching.

The challenge was that I had made the changes to the leg shape of the Tatjana Trousers and so wasn’t sure how it would fit. This meant that I really wanted to make the entire shell up and check fit first. Which was a good approach, as I ended up modifying the shape at the side seam somewhat.

Which meant that I couldn’t incorporate the lining into the fly at the time of construction. I think that if you know that your shell shape is fine and won’t need modification, it would be possible to devise a method to securely attach the lining in the course of sewing the fly.

Or you can just hand stitch it in at the end and hope for the best.

Does it look pretty?

Well, if it looked pretty, I can assure you I would have taken a photo to share with you.

But it does the job.

And I do have a pair of fully lined tailored wool trousers. That I made with my own hands.

RTW vs sewing our own

So, the question that we sewists are all too familiar with, is it worth sewing our own or is it sometimes better to just buy RTW?

And I have an indisputable answer.

It fucking depends!

If you are able to find the right fabric at a good price, it can be an economical option to make your own version of a RTW garment. Also, I find that sometimes RTW (even the expensive shit!) can be made out of poor fabrics, like polyester, so it can feel great to make it in a higher quality fabric or one that is more environmentally sustainable.

But, on this particular project, both the RTW and me-made versions are made out of 100% wool but the price of the only wool fabric I found which met my specifications meant that my fabric alone cost more than it would have cost to have bought a pair RTW.

So, financially, RTW would have been the winner for this one. I also still like the look of the RTW version slightly better around the leg, I still haven’t fully nailed my updates to the leg shape in the Tatjana Trousers. This version still looks a bit too baggy.

But, despite that, sewing our own versions of garments available as RTW can still be a good option.

The main benefit of these Tatjana Trousers is that they are in a colour not available as RTW which fills exactly the needs of my wardrobe.

By doing it myself I could also make little tweaks, like adding the cuffs. And the pockets on the Tatjana Trousers are so much bigger and roomier than those of the Theophile trousers.

Further, I wear one of the largest sizes in in the RTW brand’s garments (a size 44) and when a pair of these RTW pants are released, they sell out in these larger sizes in oh about two damn minutes! There are simply not enough options available in larger sizes to make it possible to buy RTW for a lot of people.

Further, I’m incredibly lucky that at the moment I can fit into some RTW sizing. For many people, this is not an option and so making our own garments is the only way. For others, the price point of RTW is simply not an option.

So, is it better to buy RTW or make our own? Well the answer to that can be different for every single garment, every single person and every single body.

If you want to see more of my sewing adventures, you can find me on Instagram here.