Simplicity 9376 is my latest trouser pattern I bought locally and now I’ve pretty much worked out how I want to wear these trousers based on my ‘back to the office’ needs.

Making trousers is always fraught with anxiety no matter how experienced you are sewing your own clothes.

New sewists will love this pattern because it has a flat front waistband and wide elastic back waistband.

What did I want from this pattern? A good basic trouser pattern that I can use for medium weight fabric for work and linen fabrics for the Summer months ahead.

When you look at the line drawing for Simplicity 9376 the leg style tapers slightly to the ankle.

I actually wanted the outer seam to be straighter so I did a wee bit of an adjustment to that seam.

Then naturally, I wanted to add a cargo style pocket to the pants leg.

The trick here was constructing the cargo pocket and then, making a cargo pocket work for a work pants trouser style.

Modification details:

4cm width added to the ankle point and then 2cm wider at the waist of the outer trouser seam on both the front and back trouser pattern pieces. I also added 2cm on the front and back waistband patterns.

Added 3cm length at the centre back seam and tapered this to zero at the side seam.

Removed 3cm length at the centre front seam and tapered this to zero at the side seam.

I added more height to the pocket pieces as well, but only about 2cm at most, so I could fiddle with the waistband later.

Removed 3cm from the elastic used in the back waistband. This amount was removed when I tried on the first pair of trousers. I don’t have any explanation why except that the elastic I used may be softer than the elastic used to design this pattern.

What’s next?

In the next few posts, you’ll see how I’ve used this pattern for a two-tone trouser, an Ankara print trouser and finally the work pant trouser.