Cropped pants

It all started with a pair of wool trousers that needed to be shortened … a little bit.  I’d made them long enough for higher heels, and that was back when anything shorter than hems grazing the floor just wasn’t right.  I don’t wear heels of great height all that often anymore, hence the need to shorten.  Now, it seems that pant hems can fall just about anywhere – depending on your wishes.  Well, nothing to lose – an old pair of trousers.  If they fall out of fashion, it won’t be the end of the world.  The hems got chopped off at calf length.

Turns out that this length is perfect for winter around here.  No long hems to drag through the snow and salt and the inevitable puddles in parking lots.  Perfect for climbing over snowdrifts when walking to work through a blizzard.  (When it takes less time to walk to work in the morning than shoveling out the driveway to be able to drive, I opt to walk and deal with the driveway after work.)  Anyway – I was quite happy with my decision to chop.  But one pair of cropped trousers just isn’t enough.  And skirts in blizzards aren’t such a brilliant idea, so in fairly quick (or not so quick) succession I managed to produce two more pairs.

The grey fabric is of indeterminate lineage.  Feels like wool.  Warm like wool.  But when I ran it through the washer and dryer it behaved perfectly.  Mystery fabric from a mystery source.  Only problem – not enough for full-length trousers and … a stain that hadn’t disappeared in the wash and could not be cut around.  Much thinking ensued.  I laid out the pattern so that the stain fell near the side seam with the idea that I would bring the pants-in-progress to work and embroider over the stain.  Unfortunately, shops tend to get busy when you least expect, and there just wasn’t ever time for embroidering on pants.  Then on a Saturday night I got it into my head that I absolutely had to have the grey cropped trousers for Monday morning.  Embroidery by hand would have to do.

First a circle to hide the offending spot, then a few more circles to keep that one company.  Circles on their own looked kind of sad, so - a few lines of stitching to sort of tie things in.  Well, that was one more pair for the closet (and for climbing over snowdrifts).

And then I thought a black pair in wool suiting wouldn’t be amiss.  These are lined.

Fake cuffs, which made the insides a nice clean finish, and no hand sewing necessary. 

And two buttons on the waistband, just because every so often you just have to mix things up a bit.  Sorry – nothing particularly creative about these.
All three pairs are Vogue 2532.

Sorry - OOP, though they were on the website for years.

These seem to be my go-to pattern for wider leg trousers. Rather boring.  On the other hand – when I want trousers in a hurry, I know they’ll fit.

Sometimes I do manage to get a picture of me wearing the item.