Retro-chic . . . maybe

A month or so ago someone told me about Our Social Fabric, a company that collects unwanted fabric and notions and opens up shop a few hours, a couple of days a month. Most fabrics sell for a dollar or two a yard. I picked up quite a few pieces of fabric, including a bit of crisp cotton chintz and an old Vogue pattern — number 2938. I was particularly taken with the “paperbag” waist on the pants. I’ve seen that waist recently in a magazine and have tried it on my own for a couple of pairs of pants, but I can’t say the results were stellar. I thought I would start with a pair of shorts as a sort of wearable toile, and if the results were good, move on to pants.

I thought the cotton would work well with the pattern.

There are a few problems. It turns out the cotton is very crisp. So much so that, despite the light weight, it doesn’t drape like I expected. I had to take in the hips, of course, but it’s hard to know how much when there are front pleats. This fabric kind of bunches at the hips. The real problem is with my vision. I keep “seeing” those horrible jeans of a few decades back — they had front pleats and tapered down into narrow ankles. They were hideous, but the style for gawd knows how long. I haven’t worn front pleats since then. I can’t “see” what these shorts look like because of the interior image of those hideous jeans.

So, what do these things look like? Retro-chic? Or just plain old-fashioned? The pattern package gives the date as 1992, which didn’t seem that long ago to me until I started counting. My lord, something 23 years old is beyond old-fashioned isn’t it? That’s old enough for retro, right? Gotta be.

So, I don’t know whether I should try long pants or not. I think I’d have to alter the legs. Not have them taper, but stay wide. And use a fabric more drapey than the cotton? Like maybe this wool?

I’m thinking ahead to winter. And I bought that wool, along with two other pieces of fine drapey wool at the same sale.

This is a real problem with being old enough to have gone around all the fashion cycles a few times. I thought I would never wear front-pleated pants again. Ever. But I like drapey looks. So, what do you think? Should I go ahead and try pants, or forget about it? I hate using a pattern only once, but at least there’s a cool wrap skirt pattern also in the package that I’m going to try.