Friends! It’s amazing how productive you can be when you’re procrastinating, isn’t it? (Also when you’re too uncomfortable to focus…) The fabrics from Belgium arrived, were immediately washed and dried, and as soon as I was able to stand on my feet again I got busy cutting! Two days later, two pairs of Hollywood Trousers with some of my favorite modifications.
Here are the denim trousers.
This was a heavy selvedge Cone denim that’s been sitting in my stash for quite a while. Much as I love selvedge side seams, I was only able to make use of the selvedge itself at the inside waistband. These trousers have more shaping than selvedge jeans, and in the end it was worth it to sacrifice the selvedge seams for the fit. I’m very pleased with them!
The denim itself I snagged before Cone Mills announced they were closing, but now it appears that they must have been saved at some point? Fill me in if you know the answer, because it was desperately sad when they said they were going away.
I used the angled front pocket shape and the welt back pockets that are included in our Peckham Trousers, if you need a reference for making your own alterations.
One of my favorite details of the Hollywood Trousers is the pocket stays at the inside, which keep the pockets from gaping when you sit down AND they help with a little support across your stomach because the pocket bags are securely sewn to the center front, behind the zipper fly. I love this detail, and I also included it in the khaki trousers (which you can see below) because I didn’t want the pleated front to gape open. The thing I hate about pleated trousers is how they gap across the front when you sit down, so I eliminate the problem with the pockets stays. You’ll see this pocket stay detail again in one of our upcoming spring patterns as well, and I’m so excited about it! I wish all trousers had pocket stays. Here’s one of my favorite insides, from another pair of Hollywood Trousers where I used some leftover Liberty lawn as my pocket bags and inside the waistband as a facing (a detail I included in our SoHo Skirt).
You can see how the pocket bags stay in place this way.
Here are the khaki trousers with the added pleat. I’ll save that detail for a tutorial in the near future.
This fabric is a marvel! Very light and crisp cotton twill, and I was delighted to discover that it has some sort of water repellent finish on it, which explains why my fabric-marking pen was a bit hesitant to do its job. Oh, such a pleasure to sew and wear this one! I’m seriously considering buying more for a Garibaldi A-Line Skirt and a trench coat. (Should we make a pattern for a trench coat? I want to sew one! Coat patterns never sell very well, but sometimes I’m just too passionate to care.)
I also added belt loops, which we included in the Lisboa Shorts and will also be included in one of our upcoming spring patterns. I love borrowing details from our various patterns and combining them. I hope you’re feeling confident enough to do this too! There’s always a few of us around on the forums and on the Facebook groups to offer advice if you need any. This community is wonderful for that.
Beyond that, both of these trousers were very straightforward to sew. I’ve been having fun with my waistbands and closures, and I’ll show you a few of those soon, too. But in the meantime I’m just enjoying the finished trousers. They’re great with everything: core wardrobe and beyond. And I know I’ll be wearing them well into spring and early summer as well.
You can pick up your own Hollywood Trousers pattern here: as well as the Peckham Trousers pattern for those pocket details, if you want to include them.