Making the Jones Trousers

The Jones trouser pattern is a new zero/minimal waste pattern by Emily Klug of Goldfinch Textile Studios. You may remember last year I successfully made her Simone overalls.

The trousers have a high waist with elastic back, inverted box pleats at the front, a slightly dropped crotch and plenty of ease throughout. There is a leg gusset for the inside leg and the tapered legs finish in an ankle pleat and cuff.

There are some lovely features, such as an interior phone pocket inside the cutaway pockets, and this button loop on the waistband:

Unlike other zero waste patterns which are drawn straight onto the fabric, these trousers have a complete layout which is printed and taped together like a regular pdf pattern.

The impressive size range fits a 33″/83.8cm hip to a 72″/182.9cm. To see what these trousers look like on a variety of bodies, and in a variety of fabrics, I highly recommend looking at the album of tester makes.

For fabric, I used a beautiful dark navy corduroy which Mum gave me. Napped fabrics aren’t recommended for this pattern, as the gusset will run in the opposite direction, but I’m okay with that. I really wanted to make corduroy trousers and to use what I already had here (although I was tempted to buy something new).

I made a few tweaks to the pattern. I lengthened them by 5″ because I wanted full length trousers for winter. Luckily, the instructions have an excellent fit guide which includes details on lengthening, shortening and other adjustments, and also a large table of finished garment measurements.

I used my own method for sewing the fly front, as I’m rather stuck in my ways, and I didn’t make the phone pocket…because I don’t have a phone 🙂

I cut and sewed these all in one day, and I was glad I did because the fabric was like working with velvet: it created a mess! However, I spent a couple of sessions before that getting the pattern printed, taping it all together, then considering alterations. By the time Sewing Day came around, I was primed and ready.

Surprisingly, the gusset was the hardest part to sew, but this is absolutely no fault of the pattern nor my sewing skills. I’ve sewn plenty of gussets this way (Simone overalls, scrubs, trousers) and the way Emily has made this pattern it should have been the easiest ever. The unexpected difficulty lay with the nap direction of the corduroy.

My gusset seam has the nap running in a different direction on each side, and they slipped against each other. By the time I’d sewn to the top of the leg, the seam was waaaay out! Then, of course, I went on and topstitched it, before deciding I couldn’t possibly live with it that way. I watched a movie with my children while I unpicked it, wearing a head torch so I could see the stitches.

(Update: reflections on the nap direction. The nap on the legs smooths up and the gusset smooths down and I think if I’d stitched from the crotch to the ankle I wouldn’t have had a problem because the naps would have locked together. Because I stitched from the ankle to the crotch they slid against each other.)

I saved decisions on the ankle cuffs for later. At the moment I’ve just tacked up a hem by hand, with no ankle pleat.

I’ve been tricked by shrinking corduroy before, where pre-shrunk corduroy continues to shrink in the next several washes. Has this happened to you? Some corduroys can shrink up to 5%, and since trouser legs are roughly 1m long, that’s 5cm. So I’ll wear them like this, then undo the tacking before washing them, then decide.

The verdict: Pretty happy with these! If you’re looking for easy-fitting yet smart trousers and an out-of-the-ordinary sewing experience, give them a whirl.

Cheers!