A pair of high waisted, tailored, cropped cigarette trousers has been high on my patterns-to-find list for a long while. Trousers are my preferred method of existing and any bottoms I wear have to be high waisted; as soon as I started wearing that style I haven't been able to bear anything else. I was really excited when I stumbled upon the Tyyni pattern by Named Clothing as it seemed to pretty much be what I was looking for. What I would ideally like to find is a tailored trousers pattern that looks more like these I have found on Pinterest, with front pleats, but I have searched the four corners of the pattern world and have found nothing quite right:
While I continue my search, I settled to try the Tyynis, plus I liked that they were made with 10% stretch fabric so that I would have some leeway with the fit.
The pattern: Tyyni, Named Clothing
high-waisted, midi length, straight leg trousers. Seams curve at the hips, in seam pockets, zip fly fastening, vents, iron on creases.
I made this pattern back in April and took my time about it, wanting to get my first zip fly right and make a pair of good quality trousers. I made a size 34 (I am size 8-10, 5 foot 2) and ordered some stretch crêpe in a mauvey-taupe colour from Minerva (2 metres, £7.98 p/m). It's a polyester and elastane mix. I ordered the fabric to make the pattern in January and didn't get round to making it until three months later, so these felt a long time coming.
I will be honest, this was not a straightforward sew and I am convinced there must be a major flaw in the pattern in relation to attaching the facing to the fly and zip. Other than this one problem, they were easy to sew and in general the pattern instructions were great and the illustrations informative. I searched for other reviews of Tyyni online to see if other sewers had encountered this problem but my search came up short; hardly anyone had blogged about them and no one had mentioned this fault. I reached out to a lovely sewer on instagram who shared they also had this issue and decided to add a waistband instead of a facing, as the pattern instructs.
I personally didn't get on with the pockets; they are in seam pockets but the seams are much more 'on the front of your leg' than most side seams which means the pockets sit on the front of your thighs. I also found they looked bulky and were too small to fit anything of use in them and anything inside them made them bulkier still. I decided not to include them, despite how much I love pockets. Talking of seams; I found that one seam is closer to the (centred) fly than the other and I am sure this isn't something I did wrong... You can see this in the photo below; it looks very asymmetrical.
Back to the major problem...I am really surprised the makers of the pattern did not realise the 'flaw' when designing it, nor did the testers pick it up- so maybe it is just me. I will try my best to explain it, but it isn't the easiest process to describe so forgive me if this makes no sense! I hope I will at least be able to help someone else making the Tyynis who has come across this.
Before you attach the facing to the top of the trousers, the front fly looks like this:
You can see the fly shield on the left and on the right is the left side of the trousers. Directly between where these two meet lies the zip; underneath a folded edge of the left trousers (pictured above). It is preserving this fold (that covers the zip from view) that is impossible while attaching the facing.
Because this fold juts out past the end of the facing, it gets flattened which means you end up with the beginnings of a nice neat fold at the bottom of the fly that begins flattens towards the top:
I tried sewing this so many times, trying to keep the fold by doing different, strange things with it but all had the same result. I was convinced there was no way of fixing the problem and I would never be able to wear the trousers, but I took my convoluted issue to my Grandmother who suggested hand basting it in place and this worked! Instead of machine sewing it right sides together then turning it out, I sewed with the machine up until a certain point and then created what I wanted it to look like from the outside, folding the top raw edges in on itself and carefully hand sewing it closed.
This project was a learning curve; sewing around the fly neatly was so difficult and being the perfectionist that I am, I had to re do this so many times. I think this was partly the fabric; the light colour and texture shows up any deviations. Even drawing it on with soluble pen did not ensure a neat line. I drew over it so many times that the blue ink was so hard to get out in the end as it had got underneath the line of stitching and the water couldn't wash it out (which has left a water mark that I hope will come out in the next wash). In the end, I just had to stop re-doing it as it was never going to be 'perfect'. Because the topstitching sews together the front trousers and fly shield, it anchors the front crotch in a certain place. This means that when your body pulls at this area, becuase there is no give it creates a weird, unflattering fold by the crotch. This problem got slightly better after I made the trousers smaller and re-sewed my topstitching around the fly, you will see it is less noticeable in the later photos I took in my garden.
Because of the fabric I used, my pant line is visible from the side/back. This is really frustrating, and despite wearing 'no vpl' pants, it doesn't help. I wouldn't describe the fabric as thin, being scuba-like, but somehow underwear and tops I've tucked into the trousers are extremely noticeable.
Moving on from my moan... Positives:
- I really like the iron on creases- their effect is impressive despite being simple to create and they seem to stay in place.
- These are super high waisted which I love.
- I feel good in them if I can get past my self-conscious VPL and I am happy with the end result. I wore them to work and got some complements, which was lovely.
- Other than the faff with the fly, these look like they took a lot more effort and skill than they required.
Fit:
I made a size 34 with some modifications, I usually wear a size 10 on my bottom half.
I increased the seam allowance of the back seam by 3 cm to make them tighter-fitting at the high waist. (At first I made them too small with an increase of 6cm so then went to the lengths of making them bigger, then they were too big so made them a tiny bit smaller).
They are tight fitting around the waist and bum and then become more straight on the legs.
They were also too long so I shortened them and therefore made the vents begin higher up on the leg so I still had the 'full' vent size. I didn't make a note of by how much, it was something like a good 5-10cm, for reference I am 5 foot 2.
One thing to note, it was really hard finding fabric with the correct stretch online becuase online retailers don't work out the percentage stretch so I had to guess without being able to see and test it myself.
If you're umming and ahhing about whether to make these I would definitely recommend them; the fly problem is fixable and they are a lovely shape and design; I have seen no other trousers like these out there.
Pattern: Tyyni, Named Clothing
Supplies: fabric- now cheaper than when I bought it but they are out of stock in Mauve.
Fusible interfacing, pocket bag facing, 20cm zip, 1.2cm button.