Anna's VikiSews Daphna Trousers in MeetMILK Smooth Drape Tencel Twill

Anna's VikiSews Daphna Trousers in MeetMILK Smooth Drape Tencel Twill

These trousers were a truly labour of love, but the end result has been 100% worth it for me. Since making these trousers I have worn them at least 7-10 times already (and they’ve been made for about 3 weeks).

Pattern

I used the Daphna trousers pattern from Viki Sews (bought through Etsy) as I have been wanting high waisted, pleated trousers since last year. I considered using either this or the Tatjana pattern from Just Patterns. In the end, I settled for these as they were closer to my original inspo (a RTW pair I tried on in store some months ago) and because I’ve been curious about trying Viki Sews patterns for a while.

Overall, I found the pattern mostly easy to follow. I bought the English version, and it came with lots of information on how to prepare the pattern pieces. Actually, I was rather impressed with the amount of pre-sewing prep that the pattern called for. I’ll admit that I skipped most of those steps (apart from interfacing) as I just wanted to get on with sewing!

There were some steps which I thought were confusing or missing some explanations that the photos didn’t show either. For example, when sewing the crotch seam, the instructions just said to sew the crotch seam.

They didn’t specify to stop sewing where the fly front will be! If I hadn’t made quite a few fly front trousers/shorts before, I would have totally sewn the whole crotch shut and then been scratching my head later on… There were also a few other places where I had to double check my own experience and knowledge of construction, because it was contradictory to what the text said. Because of these small issues, I wouldn’t recommend this pattern to a beginner. I think that having a few fly front garments under your belt is almost necessary to finish these!

Obviously, I haven’t tried other Viki Sews patterns and it might be that there were just these few confusing parts in this one, who knows? Perhaps these patterns (like some big 4 patterns) assume the sewist to know these things.

Fabric

Tencel twill is probably my favourite fabric to wear, which is why I picked it for this project. The quality of this MeetMILK smooth drape Tencel twill is just amazing. Probably the best twill I’ve tried! It is slightly heavier weight than some others, which was perfect for the trousers. The fabric frayed a little but overlocking the edges before sewing the side seams worked a treat. I’d probably only recommend this twill for bottom weight garments, I think it would be a little too heavy for a dress.

So far it also appears to be lasting really well in the wash. I’ve washed the fabric a few times already and so far there has been no fading or any ‘streaks’ of the colour running, as I have had it happen with some other twills. By the way, when it’s just out of the wash, Tencel twill feels very stiff, but don’t worry as it dries beautifully drapey. I also found that the fabric didn’t crease as much as I thought it would. These pictures were taken after a two-hour car ride and the creasing was really quite minimal!

Final thoughts

These trousers are probably one of my favourite things I’ve made recently. I think that they’ll work well all year round as Tencel has a cool feel in the summer, but shuts out the winds enough for winter wear. In these photos I styled them for a panel talk that I was doing for work, so I went with a more professional vibe. But I have also dressed them down with my Atelier Brunette double gauze Cielo crop top, tight jersey tops and sneakers. Very versatile pair!

P.S. – the pattern called for 2.5m in my size, but with some creative cutting I managed to also squeeze out a Cami Made Dune cami and Love & Lace Koko shorts out of the same fabric! There was pretty much no fabric waste which is truly a testament of how much I loved working with it.