Burda 6124 Stretch-Top Slacks

Covid, and a long post-surgical recovery, have put me off clothes entirely. Yet, they somehow seem necessary, even in these weird days. How to wear clothes that don’t feel like clothing? That is the question!

As a start, I settled on these Burda pants, with a lovely, wide, stretchy, waistband. Flexibility! Soft around the waist! Almost cozy, dare one hope? (But the appearance of an actual, publicly-wearable garment!)

This is a “Burda Easy” pattern, and it really is about as easy as patterns get. Still, I have a few quibbles.

The pockets are formed as part of the front pants yoke, and extend from side seam to center front seam. However, the pocket facing is cut straight up from the pocket loop — which leaves a raw edge against the facing. I’m sure the intention was to reduce bulk — but this leaves a raw edge inside the pocket, which is a pain to finish, and/or will ravel over time.

This time, I cut all my pieces according to the Burda patters, and I zigg-zagged over the raw edge like crazy, but a better solution is to choose a very thin lining fabric for the pocket lining, and cut it from the yoke facing piece. I cut my lining from nylon, which is about as thin as fabric gets, but more durable than silk, and kept the bulk down that way. That’s what I’ll use next time, but I’ll cut the full yoke piece so that I can finish all the edges more appropriately.

The waistband is just a rectangle. Burda provides no guidance for calculating the degree of stretch at all, so you’re on your own for fitting it. Worse, there’s no way a rectangular stretchy waistband will hold up woven pants — not if your waist and hip measurements actually are the same (and hence sort of rectangular), or if you have a smaller waist to hip ratio.

I gave the Burda waistband a try, and the pants slid right down. Of course! In my case, what fits my hips is enormous at my waist. So, after figuring the amount of stretch I wanted, I curved the sides of the band rather drastically. This worked a treat.

That bump-out at the left pooches
the pocket and makes it puff
if you align it with the side seam. I cut it off.

The pockets and side seams are cut so that they “pouf” a bit at the lower opening. This gives either a slightly sloppier look to the pants, or makes them look a little bit more like casual joggers. (Your choice!) I don’t like the look, so I cut the lower edge of the pocket sides in line with the side seams. The pockets are still a bit eccentric, since they are very deep, as is the opening. (The depth of the pockets goes most of the way to my 5’2″/157 cm knees!)

The instructions for the pattern are Burda-rific, which is to say, not helpful. I’ve made lots and lots of pants with this pocket construction, so I was fine, but I couldn’t make any sense at all of the actual instructions. Novice sewers, beware! Fortunately, there is an Internet available, so you’ll be fine.

Otherwise, the fit was great, and I really like the pants, but I’m really, really fed up with my failure to do proper matching at the center front and back. I did a great job with the yokes (see above), and fine with the side seams, but, oops, forgot to match the centers carefully when cutting. I know why — aligning this particular geometric print almost made me physically ill! It was dizzying, and at some point I must have tossed it in. Sigh. Plaids are so much simpler!

The fabric is a really nice jacquard with a lovely feel and drape. I think it’s probably a several years-old purchase from Plazatex in Montreal, a source of constant surprises and treasures. (No website, but they are in Mont-Royal.)