The OTHER Max Tilke Trousers
I couldn’t help myself. From the moment I read PaperCrane’s comment two weeks ago, asking about the light blue trousers, I had to try them.
For those just joining my trousers adventure, these are women’s trousers from South-Western China and illustrated in Max Tilke’s Costume Patterns and Designs. (The German edition can be viewed online, free, here. The trousers are on page 214.) They have a very unusual cut. I made the navy blue pair lately, and wrote about it here and then here.
And now I’ve tried the light blue trousers, illustrated on the left. Few others have entered this territory. Andrew Bannister Bailey on Instagram has tried them (as a concept model, full sized in calico, as seersucker shorts and in triple denim) but no-one else that I could find. By the way, if you do a search for Max Tilke you also get Formula 1 racing links.
They go together in a very similar way to the navy trousers.
1. The trousers are constructed of two rectangles, one for each leg. Overlock around the edges of both before you start (not shown). Also are two triangles – see discussion below on these.
2. Sew the two rectangles together, stopping 1cm short of each end. Press the seam open.
3. Fold one rectangle over and sew (what will become) the inside leg. Stop sewing when you meet the end of the previous seam.
4a & b. Pivot and bring the rest of the edge across to the other rectangle and sew.
5 & 6. Repeat with the other leg: fold the rectangle over and sew part of the edge, then pivot and sew the rest of the edge to the other rectangle.
I cut out two rectangles of fabric, pinned them together, and this is what we have:
They are very voluminous. The waist measures 77.5cm (30.5″) so they won’t fit on without a zip or other opening.
But what of the two mysterious triangles in the diagram?
One of them is not so mysterious, as it’s clearly inset into the front below the waistband.
What about the other one? This caused quite a bit of head-scratching, and no-one else in our household had any ideas. Is it inset into the back? Oh Max, why oh why didn’t you do a back view?
I cut out two triangles to check, but I made them a little bigger than the diagram. My thoughts were: 77.5cm waist + 7cm front triangle + 16cm back triangle = 100.5cm = my hip measurement. This tallies with Tilke’s waistband measurement, which is 1mt. But I needed seam allowances, so I made them a bit bigger.
The front triangle was easy, I just unpinned the seam a little and inserted it.
I sat the back triangle (which has a seam running through it, in the name of thrift) in the back seam like this. Initially I had the hypotenuse on the right but it didn’t work.
I noticed that Andrew Bannister Bailey didn’t use the triangles at all, but I can see why the pattern might have them – to eliminate stress at a single point. And maybe make the waist bigger?
So, with the triangles pinned in, and everything else only pinned together, I tried the trousers on. I’ve got them pinned to my underpants to hold them up. I must say, they look awful in this photo, but they’re better in real life! The trousers are very long (I’m 5’6″) and asymmetrical, and they feel like a skirt. I think they would work well in black, especially for a confirmed trouser-wearer who’s looking for an arty skirt-like trouser, and owns cool boots and coloured spectacle frames.
If I were to make these shorter, I would start with a rectangle shorter than 88cm.
At the risk of disappointing, I’m going to stop here. I think these could work, however not in this fabric for me. I could see myself wearing these in summer with sandals, but given that I need to spend half the day lying in bed, and the fabric is cotton/linen, it would end up a crumpled mess. The fabric creases by merely looking at it, and not in a charming rumpled way. So I’ll unpin them, put the fabric away, and remember them for perhaps the future.
I do recommend trying these if they’re your thing, or if you’re a geometry/patterncutting nerd, and highly recommend making a paper model first.
Cheers!