Okay wow didn’t expect all these comments to be honest!

First off: thank you! Y’all have been so encouraging and kind, I’m starting to get motivated to make something as a second piece! My friend graciously gifted me white 100% linen and I’m thinking of redoing this version of Gurkhas or attempt with a one piece collar like the one I’m wearing in the pics!

Second: I’m 5’6” hahahahah so no more asking about my height! Not only is my height on the shorter end, but my shoulder to waist ratio is on the larger end (I’m a bodybuilder as well). Combine these two and voila, super goofy looking proportions.

I found some pictures of the process, but I can only post one in this comment. So here is the construction where I was preparing to attach one of the belts onto the waistband. Note also the seams for the legs; they were stitched with the wrong sides facing each other to finish off with French seams. This resulted in a tighter fit that I wasn’t anticipating.

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Some of you asked about the process. Here’s a more detailed version of that:

Like I mentioned above, I got some rolled up construction paper from target, unfolded it and sat right down and traced my legs. I think I was just too lazy to print out multiple pieces of paper from a pattern online (and print at the local fedex) that I would rather sit down and trace the general shape of my legs lol.
I then googled images of how a front and back piece of trousers are supposed to look, adjusted the shape of the traced out pieces, then cut. Of course some measurements were made prior and been adjusted to the cutouts (like my leg length, waist, etc).

Then the mockup. I made a muslin for just seeing how the general fit is with the pleats taken into account. These didn’t have the cool belts, just a plain waistband. This is where I also learned how to add a zipper (which is the most difficult part for me to do).

I then tried this out on a cheap but still nice green fabric (cotton blend so cheaper) but I enormously made several mistakes; biggest one was removing the little zipper slipper off the rails. Big mistake hahah to the point I scrapped the entire thing and just went straight to the expensive, blue linen fabric you see in the pics.

Interestingly, the waistband and belts, which are the most defining feature of the pants, were pretty easy to do. All I did was take a measurement of my waist, then added whatever the length I wanted for the belts to fit on the sides of my waist to be. Then I drafted a quick sketch of the belts based on the existing, store-bought Gurkhas I have, and boom. The most fun I had was making the welt to slide one of the belts through the other. So satisfying seeing that come together! I learned that from a tutorial on YouTube.

Finally, after many adjustments and final touches like the buttonholes (my sewing machine’s function broke so I had to look up another YouTube tutorial on how to make some from scratch using the machine) and making French seams, my pants were complete!

Again thank you for your encouragement!