My Modern Marx-Etzel Trousers

I’ve been making the trousers from the book Bog Fashion. Read about this interesting pattern in last week’s post.

This is where we left off last week, a pinned-together pair of trousers with an enormous waist:

I’ve spent the past week thinking about how to manage the wide waist and finish off the trousers.

No-one really knows how the original Marx-Etzel breeches were worn at the waist; possibly rolled down over a belt. The author gives some options. One is a drawcord casing. The other suggestion is to fold the excess fabric across at the front, tie with a belt, then fold the top of the trousers over the belt. Some traditional Asian trousers do this.

While I love the look of the folded-over fronts, I might not want to do this every time I visit the smallest room in the house.

As Margo in last week’s comments alluded to, at some point there’s a departure from the original design to suit the person. I decided to reduce the waist width via pleats, darts and seams, and make an elastic waist. I’m using a sewing machine, but not an overlocker. And pockets, because realistically I probably won’t wear them without pockets.

The waist on my trousers measures 62″. I wanted to reduce this by 22″ to 40″ which is my hip measurement.

I started by tapering the back seams towards the waist. The original Marx-Etzel breeches did this, and the author did this on hers too. It’s a flat felled seam.

6″ down, 16″ to go.

I then took a dart on each side, taking care of another 4″.

10″ down, 12″ to go.

I spread the remaining 12″ amongst four pleats on the front.

The overall shape is looking much more trouser-like.

I gave some thought to pockets. I could have added patch pockets, or a ROO exterior pocket, but not inseam pockets as there are no side seams to put them in.

After a bit of thinking, I added two side pockets behind the pleats, attached to the backfold of the pleat closest to the side. In case you’ve come here wanting to add pockets to your Marx-Etzel breeches, here’s how I did it. Note that my trousers have a separate waistband, not a folded-over waist casing (this affects the depth of the pocket opening).

1. Try the trousers on and check the pleat position – the pleats need to be close to the sides.

2. Cut out two pieces for the pocket bags.

3. Press a crease line along the centre of the pocket (dash line) and back fold of the pleat (where arrow is). Lay the pocket bag face down onto the right side of the trousers, matching the creases.

Fuse a small circle of interfacing onto the crease line of trousers and pocket bag, aligning the centre of the circle 17cm down from the top.

Stitch a narrow elongated U shape around the crease, about 4mm from the crease each side. At about 17cm down, stitch around the point and come up the other side. Shorten the stitch length at the bottom of the U, for strength.

Cut along the crease line to bottom of the U, and snip to the stitching at the apex of the U. It looks like this:

4. Turn through and press. Topstitch around the opening to conceal the raw edges, kind of like a French seam.

5. Form the pleats. Make the pocket bags face into the centre of the trousers, and sew around the two sides of the pocket bags.

The pocket looks like this when finished:

The inside looks like this:

…and then the trousers were just about finished. I put a separate waistband on the top with elastic, because I didn’t think there was enough length to fold over for a casing (that’s not the fault of the book’s instructions; I just think I didn’t measure properly). I left the legs unhemmed as there was already a substantial selvedge there.

The Verdict. Really comfortable. Although I won’t make a second pair, I can see myself wearing these as summer trousers. They sure were a fun and interesting project. Thank you Nicole DeRushie for writing this book.