Ahhh, the search for the perfect pair of work trousers.

I’ve been on it for a while.

Long-time readers may recall that I made a decent attempt at it with a Burda Style magazine pattern a while ago but was so enraged by their limited sizing that I vowed never to sew another of their patterns.

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Once I stop working from home, I will definitely wear my Arthur Pants to work too but they are a little bit in the “ever-so-slightly edgy for work” categories.

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On those days when I need to be conservative and traditional, I’m still searching for the perfect work pants.

I think the Tatjana Trousers by Just Patterns ticks most of the boxes! By way of disclosure, after stalking previews of this pattern on the owner Delphine’s account @sewingtidbits on instagram for months, she kindly offered me an advance copy of the pattern for free. The fabric, sewing time and opinions poured into it are entirely my own!

My Tatjana Trousers

My Tatjana trousers are a size 48, which was the size recommended for my body measurements. The pattern goes up to size 56, with the largest size accommodating a waist of 114cm and hip of 140cm.

My fabric is a deadstock wool from Meter Meter. I originally used this fabric to make the Envelope Dress by Criss Wood Sews and it was a disaster. But at least I’ve managed, with the aid of buying a bit more, to repurpose it into its more natural habitat: fancy work pants!

I do love me a good window pane check for pants. Remember these Mccalls ones? (I’m still holding on to them in the hope they may fit again one day or that I can play with the pleat size to make them fit!)

But checks obviously can be a challenge on detailed projets for pattern matching purposes. I did my best across the fly front of my Tatjana Trousers but haven’t quite mastered it. But the real challenge is the fact that pleats and darts are going to interrupt the lines of the windowpane pattern in a way you can’t control. And that can sometimes be visually jarring. But I think that’s a risk I’m happy to live with in exchange for this lovely window pane goodness!

And speaking of patterns, I didn’t even try for matching on the welt pocket – it hurt my brain too much to try to envisage how things were going to end up when properly in place!

The Tatjana Trousers is one of those patterns that doesn’t scrimp on the details and it’s all really about including those high-end features: double pleats, shaping at the back by way of double darts, belt loops, slash pockets at the front, welt pockets at the back and bias binding the fly for pretty insides.

In other words, all the good stuff!

Sewing the Tatjana Trousers

Sewing the Tatjana Trousers are definitely not a first project as there is a lot going on with all those details. The instructions are also very detailed and do hold your hand, as necessary.

Sometimes, there was even so much information in there that it confused me a tad!

I learned plenty while sewing these.

The fly construction method was new to me and came together well. The instructions for that always complex step of welt pockets were impeccable.

I originally made an error when sewing these Tatjana Trousers as I sewed my pleats down in place for a couple of inches which meant that I didn’t have enough room around the hips. It turns out that the pleats were not meant to be sewn down at all (just basted across the waistband), so once I had unpicked them, you can see the finished product is just fine. I believe that the instructions were updated before publication (I was looking at an advance copy), to avoid silly sewists like myself misinterpreting them!

I have also simplified the finishing on the waistband in my version of the Tatjana Trousers here. As designed, there is a waistband overlap and it is finished invisibly on the outside. It looks really classy.

I changed it up because I finished the waistband while I had just realised that I’d made the above mentioned mistake with the pleats so I thought that these trousers didn’t fit and just wanted to be done with it. You know, for closure. And in case I could gift them to someone they do fit. I also have a pathological hatred of hooks and eye.

So I dropped the very pretty overlapping waistband finish included in the Tatjana Trousers and just finished this up with a simple button.

Next time round…

There is a lot to like about this pattern. The welt pockets are great and I think that the fit at the back is spot on.

I would perhaps recommend, before devoting time to all these lovely details, to just whip up a muslin to check the shape and length.

For a future pair, I would like to make them longer – I think this pair has ended up a tad too short on me and I also like the idea of adding a cuff at the bottom.

I also feel that on my body the pant leg of the Tatjana Trousers is not quite wide enough yet and I would prefer them a tad wider in order to balance out my hips.

All of which would have been easily fixable had I made a muslin!

So muslin before you commit yourself to those welt pockets, guys! It’ll be worth it!

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