Completed: Corduroy Thurlow Trowsers

I like corduroy pants for winter because they feel warm, cozy and comfortable. I had two pairs many years ago and those pants got a lot of use. When I was living in Brussels I wanted more of those corduroy pants because winters were freaking cold over there, too cold for this warm blooded Spanish girl. One of the things that I hated from Brussels (and Belgium in general) was that shops closed around 6 or 6:30 pm so it was impossible to buy anything during the week. That made Saturdays hectic for me. I remember Rue Neuve so crowded, everybody in that same buying frenzy. I used to end up buying too many things without thinking too much just by impulse because Saturdays were the only chance I had to get them. I remember the time I was hunting for those cherished corduroy pants that I spent four consecutive Saturdays looking for them with no result. Corduroy could be trendy years ago but it’s becoming less and less since some time ago already. The only ones I found were skinny pants and that’s a no go for me. I have a mild case of knock knees and thick thighs and I know that that shape of pants doesn’t flatter me at all, so imagine my horror knowing that skinny pants are trendy since some years ago. And I like boot-cut pants! I am so glad that I’m sewing now my own clothes!

If you remember I made a pair of Thurlow Trousers last year and I love them. It’s not only that I could customize them the way I wanted, I can say that they are the most comfortable pair of pants that I own. My thighs have grown thicker in the last year and a half because of Capoeira, and I have a small waist compared to my hips, so you can imagine that I run into a lot of fitting issues with regular pants (tight on the thighs, enormous waistline). That pair of pants is not perfect, but it’s one of the best things I’ve made and they are my favorite. So I had to make them in corduroy!

As I’ve said, corduroy is not trendy anymore, so not only buying RTW corduroy pants is difficult; getting the fabric is also hard, and the shops receive so little of it that it sells out quite fast. When I went to buy this corduroy for my Thurlow I finished the bolt and got more than half a meter for free (they didn’t want to leave it there).

This brown thin whale corduroy is slightly stretchy, and this makes this pants as comfortable as sweat pants. I know that they are not the most fancy pants in the world, but they are what I wanted them to be: cute, warm and comfortable.

I bought a really beautiful fabric for the inside that caught my eye the second I saw it and I knew it was meant for this pants.

The corduroy is not a very elegant fabric, but I just love those lines, the symmetry. I like symmetrical things.

There’s a little bulge on the front of my pants and I may need to fine tune this pattern for the future (but not for my next pair since it’s already cut, hehe) but it was not present on my first pair. It could also be because this fabric is a bit elastic, but it also means that I can sit comfortably in them and eat as much as I can.

Those welt pockets gave me a bit of a headache. The ones in my first pair went fine but I don’t know how I managed to mount these ones the wrong way around. I think I was just too tired, and after my realization I went straight to bed. The day after I fixed them and you wouldn’t be able to tell they were like that before.

I remember that sewing the zipper for my first pair was almost a nightmare. I got it almost right in the end after struggling with it. This one worked like a charm. Being this my third fly-front zipper helped to master the technique.

Like with my first Thurlow I was afraid again of sewing the belt loops, but my machine behaved correctly and they were sewn without any issue. And they look almost professional!

I finished this pair of pants last Thursday and I have worn them everyday since then. The weather has cooled down a bit in the last days and this pair of pants is just what I needed.