A while back when I was showing some students how to draft a trousers pattern, I asked one of the tutor if she wanted to volunteer to be a test subject. She agreed and the outcome was a very useful lesson for the students and a new pair of trousers for the tutor. She has worn it ever since and recently, I told her that I would like to make her another pair if she provided the fabric. Grudgingly she said yes because she was worried it would trouble me but since the pattern had already been drafted, it was no trouble at all.
Being a print tutor, she has a lot of fabrics that she has designed and one of them happened to be a lovely print of her parrots. She had previously given me a silk version of this fabric which I used to make a T-shirt for my sis (see here) but she also had this printed on a heavy cotton fabric.
I asked her how she wanted this trousers and she replied ‘comfortable with elasticated waistband so I can eat and some interesting frills’. I took that into consideration and made her this pretty trousers.
The frills inserted to the side seam adds a nice detail and shape to the trousers. It created a bell shape when worn but the most amazing thing was the print. I was so in love with it and kept the off cuts to make myself a pair of shorts.
I had some white cotton drill fabric so I alternated between the parrot print and the white fabric. The result is what you can see above.
I do have to say that wearing the shorts makes me feel as pretty as the parrots!
Stephen Yong 