Tried and true trousers BWOF 4-2009 -118,dumbing down a pattern

I am in the sewing doldrums. Despite at least am hour spent reading pattern magazines in my rocking chair today, the only thing I have been able to sew this weekend is dumbed -down trousers from BWOF 4-2009-118.
First I thought I would use up some mysterious fabric. Pattern Review's stash challenge is responsible for this decision. I have owned a piece of pseudo "gabardine" since textile studios, (USA) decided to remove itself from fabric sales. I bought quite a lot of fabric sometime in 2009 in their closing down sale, but have used none of it until now. This piece is an odd sort of knit. I was expecting a woven from the description "cotton/rayon gabardine" but the fabric was a peculiar spongy texture, maybe a double knit, with a sort of twill appearance on one side and a definite reverse stocking stitch appearance on the back. I had intended it for trousers, but it was heavy, drapey and stretchy, yet ravelly - not a good candidate.
Despite these misgivings, I thought I could attempt trousers from this fabric. I thought I might be able to wear them under my beach cover up tunic.
Here are the trousers.




You can see that there is a certain lounge wear vibe to these trousers. I had not intended this , but the stretchiness of the fabric took over. First I cut out the trousers (pattern is for woven fabrics) with no seam allowance in the the vertical seams, and removed 3cm from the to the depth of the crotch, to allow for fabric sag. Then I reinforced the horizontal seams and the crotch seam with woven selvage to prevent sagging. Still the trousers were too big. I added elastic to the waist seam - no joy, then a drawstring to the front waistband, almost they fit, but alas, they look more like tracksuit pants than proper trousers. These are relegated to lounge wear, and as they are far too hot and heavy to wear to the beach, I think I will save then until next winter.
Despite my original disappointment, I am quite happy with these trousers on further reflection. They are the most flattering track suit pants I have ever worn. (You can see why I prefer skirts!) I may need to put a side zip in all my tracksuit pants in future.

Now that I had managed to get back to the sewing machine, I kept working on clothes for my weekend away. I wanted semi-public suitable sleepwear (weekend away with girl friends). I made a pair of pyjama trousers to co-ordinate with the BWOF 11-2009 camisole I made last year. The pyjama pants are quilting cotton.

I used BWOR 4-2009 again, this time changing the darts to gathers, enlarging the waistband, an adding 1.5cm to all horizontal seams. I think the pyjama pants turned out quite well. It is very useful to have a simple, tried and true trousers pattern.


Next up I will be making another beach cover up. Here is what happened to the last one. Theft! pure and simple.
DD the first on her way to her school swimming carnival on Friday. For some strange reason she did not want to wear her fancy hat for the photo.

She did not get sunburnt at all, so it is quite an effective cover up, even if rather hot to wear between dips in the pool.

It looks better on my daughter, otherwise I would be stealing it back.