Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Linen Trouser Jeans! And Vacation!

My jeans-style linen trousers took SO much longer and were SO much more involved than I had planned. But they are done done done!

Actually, they've been done for a while and I've been wearing them non-stop. Phineas and I just had a horrible time with the photo shoot. In fact, we re-shot twice with no luck. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these pictures are saying all the wrong things. Here is the best of the worst.




I honestly don't know what the problem is. You are just going to have to trust me that in person, these linen trousers are everything I would want - fun, slimming, leg-lengthening... Phin concurs, and even my most stylish friend complimented them before she knew I had sewn them.

But in photos they have a serious case of the uglies.




There isn't too much to add to all the other posts I've done on these trousers. They started off as elastic waist linen pants. Then I decided to add a fly and jeans styling, which lead to all kinds of changes. So, the key features of these trousers are:
  • hand-worked button hole and jeans button
 

  • patch pockets

     
  • flat felled outseams
  • faced hems
 

  • faux Hong Kong finished inseams and center back seam
  • lime green underlining
  • fun striped fly pieces
Did I forget anything? Oh! Loads of gold top stitching. I pretty much covered everything else here and here.  I guess it's worth mentioning that I hate top stitching thread. I found it awful to work with as it snarled and snagged, formed bobbin nests and generally caused all kinds of tension problems. Yuck. Never again!




BUT I am really loving these pants. They are great for this hot weather and sort of strike the balance between jeans and trousers. I think I will be wearing them all summer long, but perhaps avoiding cameras. 

By the way, did I mention that I am flying to Athens tonight? No? Oops. Phin and I, accompanied by my sister Calliope, are going on vacation for the next almost 2 weeks. Our itinerary includes Athens, Rhodes, Santorini and Istanbul, which is why I am wearing a floppy hat in these photos - vacation packing. Anyway, I have a bunch of posts already written, so you won't miss me at all. See you when I'm back!

12 comments:

Clio said...

Sewing success. These pants rock... Enjoy your holiday..

Clio said...

You did a fabulous job and totally looking vacation chic ready. Have an awesome vacation.

Clio said...

Kalo taxithi! (or bon voyage in Greek!) Great topstitching and yeah for comphy pants! They look great.

Clio said...

Wow! These are super fantastic! I don't see any "uglies" anywhere. I love all the finishing and construction details and the colour. I hope you get miles of wear out of these great looking trousers!

Clio said...

The top stitching looks fabulous, even if it was way annoying! These look great! Have a fabulous trip!!!!!

Clio said...

Have fun on vacation in your awesome new comfy pants!!

Clio said...

Is your family greek? With a name like Calliope :)

Anyway, I completely sympathize with you. I have a lot of items that I feel never photograph as well as real life. Then one day, I will get one photo, with one weird angle that perfectly describes how they should be. So funny! I can tell your trousers look good though.

Clio said...

Wow - Have an amazing holiday!! That sounds fabulous :) I love all the detailed shots of the pants - topstitching thread is super nasty to work with, but it does look good :) Your button is perfectly matching, too! I know photos can sometimes make something look not like it does in real life (sometimes it goes the reverse for me - a nice surprise!) but as long as you're happy with them, that's all that counts :)

Clio said...

Great pants - they really look like jeans :-) The top stiching looks good despite problems. I think that as long as no one looks at the seams with a magnifying glass (or close-ups) he will never notice any imperfections.

Clio said...

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these pictures are saying all the wrong things."


I actually laughed out loud at that one. Though I think you look great in the photos. These are so very cool. What a fab idea to make jeans that you can wear in the summer without dying by using linen.



(P.S. Comments don't show up/can't be posted in Chrome, for some reason; had to switch to Firefox.)

Clio said...

Yeah, it's a problem with Chrome and Discus. They say that relaunching Chrome can help.



Thanks - these were the best of a slew of pictures and I was not thrilled with them but they are ok. ;-)

Clio said...

No we're kind of an Irish/Scottish/German mix. I picked names for my sisters for the blog after the Muses.