Trouser & Shorts Sewing Patterns

Ready-made trousers are fitted to an average nobody actually is, which is why so many people have a drawer of pairs that almost work. Sewing your own is the fix, and the thing that puts people off, the fitting, is a one-off cost rather than a recurring one. Once you know that you need a bit more room in the seat or an inch off the rise, you apply the same adjustments to every pattern you make afterwards.

Tessuti, Wardrobe By Me, Maison Fauve, Closet Core Patterns and Style Arc make up most of this collection, with Jalie, Merchant & Mills and The Assembly Line alongside. The range covers the full spread of legs, from wide and flowing through straight and tapered, and includes jeans and chinos as well as simpler pull-on designs. There are men's patterns here too, not just women's.

Choosing a leg shape

Wide leg trousers are the most forgiving to fit, since the ease through the leg hides a great deal, and they suit fabrics with drape. Straight leg is the safe middle ground and works in almost anything with a bit of body. Tapered and slim shapes show every fitting issue, so they're worth attempting once you've made a pair you're happy with. Pull-on elasticated styles skip the fly and the waistband fitting altogether, which makes them the obvious first pair. Jeans are their own project: topstitching, rivets, a fly front and heavy cloth, but the patterns walk you through it.

Fitting trousers

Make a toile. It's the one garment where it genuinely saves time rather than costing it, and calico is cheap compared with a length of good cloth. Measure your waist, hip and, importantly, your rise, which is the measurement from waist to seat and the one most people never check, and compare all three to the pattern's finished measurements. Most fitting problems come down to the rise being wrong rather than the width. Adjust in small increments and re-check, since a centimetre goes a long way here.

What to make them in

The fabric has to carry the shape. Wide leg designs want drape, so viscose, crepe, tencel and lighter linens work well. Straight and tapered legs suit cloth with more structure: twill, cotton drill, gabardine and heavier linen. Jeans need denim, and the weight matters, since a heavy denim gives the traditional structure while a lighter one is easier to sew and more comfortable to break in. Chinos want a firm cotton twill. Every pattern lists what it expects, and ordering a sample lets you check the weight before you buy the length.

Related collections

For cloth, see denim, linen and viscose and Tencel. You'll want fastenings for zips and buttons, and there's the full sewing pattern range if you're after something else.