Every year I say the same thing: “I have to start sewing my own clothes again. Damn those artsy-craftsy projects!” But do I follow through? No. And why not? I have sewn men’s trousers, shirts, and blazers. I have tackled silk charmeuse and bias-cut wool crepe, for God’s sake, and lived to tell about it.
But I digress. Early in 2018, I saw a photo of green linen pants on Pinterest, and kept thinking, “Yes! These are the pants I want. Loose leg a la Katherine Hepburn (my nick-namesake). Gorgeous green shade, like looking into an endlessly deep pond. A neutral which isn’t a neutral.
I finally found the fabric online (guilty — I miss the days of crawling around Boston’s garment district), and then needed a pattern. Sad to say, I don’t know how to drape or draft or anything along the lines of original pattern creation. So it came down to finding something from the Big 4 – Vogue, McCall’s, Butterick, Simplicity – or an indie company.
Long story short: I haven’t found the pattern yet. That’s my excuse. (Especially because when I look at the pants in this photo, the fly front strikes me as obscenely out of scale; lumpy and unnecessary).After a proper pre-wash, the gorgeous linen has been lovingly folded and stored in a vault in Colorado. (Actually it’s in my garage.)
Technically speaking, 2019 is the year of the pig and the year of the skirt. But I just want to make a pair of green pants. Is that too much to ask?