Back to Basics, why not Summer Ralph Lauren Whites? Burda's jeans skirt model 2-2014-109

At the end of the day, (actually at the beginning of the day, but let's not get technical) I spend a lot of my working time alone at my desk. There is no wardrobe regime for this but Shower and Show Self-Respect. During the winter my 'uniform' often ends up whatever sweater suits me on a black bottom—skirt or trousers. That's why a lot of my sewing is for the evening concerts we attend in Geneva.

I'm getting a little long in the tooth to realize so late that neutral bottoms are also a summer solution, in reverse. I love white pants or a skirt with an interesting top, it's looks so classic, so Ralph Lauren-on-Long Island. Okay. Why don't I have a whole slew of white bottoms in my separates closet? I can sew, can't I?

Sadly, the two pairs of Burda jeans I so lovingly sewed in 2010 are now way too tight for me. Sadly, because I worked hard on them, but also sadly because the 20 pounds of weight I had lost in 2009 was from life-changing/ life-saving surgery/illness/treatment.

I am no longer a size 40 at the hips, but back to the 'let's call it 44', (but at least I'm here to tell the tale, so end of sad and thanks to my doctors, again.)

But also end of Burda 2010 white jeans. I still have one nice pair of 44 white linen trousers from Promod, (I'm wearing them in my previous post about the Philip Lim silk top sewing and dyeing debacle) but only one white bottom, a jeans skirt, that I really love for everyday.

So I pulled out a TnT slacks pattern, Burda 108B-8-2010 (or wearing my khaki version in the Croatian airport here: http://chanelno6.blogspot.ch/2012/08/safari-jackets-part-i.html) and some really, really cheap, heavy white IKEA cotton and went to work.

This is the third time for this basic pattern. IKEA's twill or 'serge'  is 100% cotton with no stretch, so they're not quite great, but they will soften with washing and at least they are white, basic, and long enough. (I have a very long inseam, so I lengthened size 42-44 by 4 cm.)

I also realized my favorite A-line white jeans skirt (from a grocery chain rack!) here,

was just not quite right. Good for making breakfast. Good for going to the post office. Good for the endless and complicated rubbish recycling tasks required by Swiss ecology laws. But at my age, (see photo above) this size 42 is a trifle too short, a trifle too jeansy for a silk shirt with that silver button, too loose in the waist at the back, and yet too tight at the hips, witness the wrinkles. (okay, I'm actually a size 45.) I'm constantly yanking it down over my hips whenever I stand up.



So I reached for my bulging ringbinder of photocopies of all of Burda's technical diagrams since 2008 and found two possibles, ending up with this one, 2-2014-109

 which is the most 'lady-like' of the three options and used in the magazine as the bottom of a jacquard skirt suit. The other options are a ripped up denim number and a safari style with cargo pockets. I traced all three variations, just in case. This looked like becoming something of a sloper for me.

 Here's the result, a true 41-45. I compromised with single top-stitching down the front for durability and along the back yoke seams and pocket edges but no contrast double-stitching jeans-style.

I'm still interested in Burda's 'Romy Schneider model,' above, from another issue, which is even more elegant and anA-line like my beloved grocery shop number. I may still do that one, too, again for mere pennies in white IKEA twill. 

Anyway, for the moment, I've got my Ralph Lauren look down, and might now make one or two more. Total cost about 5 bucks each for the trousers and skirt because I'm using recycled zippers from my stash.