Underlining The Wide-legged Trousers

This autumn/winter the trend for white and cream trousers has been growing across both casualwear and tailored looks. Not the most practical garment but they can look very stylish.

I found this wool barathea cloth in my fabric collection; it has a great drape for trousers but maybe a little lightweight and transparent. I consulted with Claire Tyler who helps run The Maker’s Atelier sewing retreat with me and decided to try underlining with 100% cupro bremsilk.

There are several advantages to underlining a garment: the feel against one’s skin, minimizing transparency issues, adding weight to a fabric and to lessen creasing and bagging. Here is how I underlined The Wide-legged Trousers.

It is extremely important to iron both the lining and the outer fabric so that they are completely flat before starting. I cut out the pattern pieces in bremsilk first and tacked these pieces to the wrong side of the wool fabric; taking care to keep both fabrics flat. At this stage lay the paper pattern on top to add slip stitches as required in the pattern.

Then cut the wool fabric following the edge of the bremsilk.

I then overlocked the edge of both the bremsilk and wool fabric effectively sandwiching them together. Then remove the tacking stitches.

Make up the trousers as instructed in the pattern. I chose to place a button fastening on the underside of the waistband to keep a clean face to the trousers. The finished trousers have a truly luxurious feel to them.

While we are still in the depths of winter I will reserve these for evenings out worn with a wool Blazer. For early spring I will swap the jacket for a lightweight navy sweater for a marine inspired day look.