This is the accompaniment book from the third series of The Great British Sewing Bee written by Claire-Louise Hardie (who I met briefly at my failed Great British Sewing Bee audition attempt). I don’t normally buy these books but actually found quite a few projects I like from it so I figured why not! Plus it has the pattern for that Walkaway dress that crops up everywhere…

  
It’s a pretty good book actually. Lots of techniques and instructions and plenty of projects to get stuck into. There’s only a few I wanted to get stuck into right away though – the silk box tee, the walkaway dress (obvs…) and the casual trouser.

I started with the trouser first. Mostly because I was curious and mostly because I was suddenly struck by the idea I could turn the pattern into a pair of sweat/ lounge pants. Random, I know.

The trouser pattern is actually part of the jumpsuit pattern but they provide instructions on a hack to turn them into trousers which is pretty awesome. I figured with the right fabric and design additions I could easily make some nice comfy and stylish sweats – the kind you wear on long flights because your mum told you not to wear skinny jeans on the plane…

Anyway, I picked up this soft dark marl grey ribbed jersey which I thought would work quite well. Normally I’d avoid a rib for this kind of project as it can be a little stiff but this one was fine enough to drape well.

I made a size 12 as I wanted it a little on the loose side. The only adjustments I made to the pattern was to shorten the leg by an inch in the middle. I planned to add buttonholes on the front waistband to thread a ribbon through and to turn up the cuffs by 4cm to create a channel for elastic at the end of each pant leg.

On the waistband, I added elastic as well as the planned ribbon tie to make sure it’ll stay up!

I also added side seam pockets. I happened to have some pockets in a cotton the same colour as the twill ribbon I was using, just lying around – total coincidence – so I used them as a nice contrast to the grey knit. I prefer the pockets in the woven fabric – less likely to sag over time!

So, some comfy yoga style lounge pants sorted out! I’m loving the relaxed look. I’m definitely going to get a lot of use out of these!