I’ve made some new trousers…
this is the new Mitchell trousers pattern by Closet Core patterns. It has two views, view A is a pegged, cropped version and view B is an ankle length, more swishy wide-leg version. Obviously I was always going to make the wide leg swishy leg version! I love that 40s Hollywood, menswear inspired vibe… although this design was actually inspired by Joni Mitchell from the 70’s, and yes while the menswear look was definitely a thing in the 70s I think it definitely had its actual roots from trend setters like Katharine Hepburn in the 40s.
I unearthed from Le Stash a long length of beige linen with blue pin stripes; originally bought from the Fabric store during one of our very earliest trips to Melbourne! I’m pretty sure I’ve had this for approximately ten years! SOOOOO happy to have this finally gainfully employed into a (I think) rather gorgeous new addition to my wardrobe!
Soon after buying it I suddenly felt the tastefully bland colour totally uninspiring, and just could not for the life of me work out why I’d bought it in the first place. But of course, an unexciting colour is never a problem when you can dye it… and it’s quite a thick, substantial kind of linen, really beautiful quality; so I hung onto it, confident it would find its purpose one day. And it finally has!
I washed the beige fabric with a length of very very intensely red cotton corduroy. This worked a charm straight off the bat and I got a length of beautiful blush pink linen which I absolutely love… hurrah! I’m aware this colour could fade over time, but fortunately it’ll be easy to keep it up with a light wash of pink dye every now and then 
The buttons were from Spotlight, once upon a time… and the zip I used is a bit bright but it’s not like you can really see it. Both from stash.
The Mitchell design has two buttoned welt pockets at the back and deep, slanted front hip pockets peeping out from under deep front pleats, side ties to nip in the waist, and a waist facing as opposed to a waistband. This does give a lovely sleek and smooth silhouette at the back of the waist, which is very nice, I think! I couldn’t find the correct size of D-rings at Spotlight, so had to settle for a smaller set. I folded in the ties to fit as neatly as I could and I don’t mind the slightly squeezed in resulting look here, but am thinking if I ever do spot the right size I’ll probably by them and switch these out. Or not. As I said, I do kinda like this look!
Very happy with my back welt pockets! My stripes even match up perfectly, which is a pretty happy thing! And yes, I admit I pinned each and every stripe to get that perfect match 
this colour closest to the true colour…
The Mitchell design has you cutting the pockets from lining fabric, and you add facings and patches so that you can only see self-fabric peeping out from when the pockets open up; but I opted instead to cut all pocket pieces from the self fabric in the first place. It might make things a little bulkier but it’s a lot simpler and I don’t mind having the small amount of extra thickness; though this does depend a lot on the kind of fabric you’ve chosen… I guess if you have chosen a wool crepe of something then you’d definitely want to go the extra effort of doing the pockets as outlined in the instructions.
Of course they are exceptionally comfortable to wear. In fact I really enjoyed wearing them all day; and the fact is that I’m not usually very comfortable in trousers or jeans. I mean, I wear them, but mostly think I look terrible in them so tend to go for a skirt or dress by default. At this time of year though, I’m heartily sick of all my winter skirts, and yet it’s too cold for summer dresses yet, and so I find myself reaching for trousers/jeans instead. You know, just for a bit of variety. I’m a person who craves variety, particularly in my wardrobe.. oh really Carolyn? whatever gives you that idea?! *laughing at myself*…
Anyway, love of trousers amounts to a seasonal thing, for me. The exceptional quality of this beautiful linen, combined with a truly chic design means I’m sure I’m going to enjoy wearing this a lot over this season, as well as well into summer!
In all my pictures, I’m wearing them with my white Booragoon top, available as a pattern here, and first blogged here… I am wearing this all the time at the moment. It’s the perfect basic!
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