Edit: Unfortunately the images in this post have decided to disappear completely and at the moment I can’t find them anywhere. Sorry.
I suppose these would be classed as Yoga Pants, but as I don’t do Yoga and am English so resent calling trousers pants I am not going to refer to them as that again. I allowed myself to call them that once as the pattern the trousers I used to make these came from called them pants… (its a stretch I know :p )
To make these I used a pair of ‘trousers’ I had made this morning. They are more of a wearable muslin than trousers. They were made with an old duvet cover that I had got from a charity shop a while back, and the pattern on that is going sideways on the trousers! So they will probably only be worn in the house or around the garden…
When wearing the trousers I was going to use as a pattern I pinched out all the excess fabric around one side and pinned this together.
Taking them off I then turned the other leg inside the pinned one and folded down the pin ‘line’ and then secured this under so I had half a pattern piece.
I placed this on top of my folded material. I used T-shirting for these as I love the feel of it.
Draw around this outline and then do the same again (one for each leg).
If you are getting technical you should do different patterns for the front and back of the leg to accommodate your bottom, the curve should be slightly longer at the back.
Cut out the patterns and sew each leg together at the crotch seam, as marked with the very badly drawn grey line.
Once You have sewn both legs together at the crotch seam then sew up the inside leg,making sure that you have the seams out when pinning (I nearly did this inside out!) The best way I find is to sew from the bottom of one leg, up across the crotch seams and then down the other leg.
Once you have done this then line up the outside seams of each leg and sew these.
Making a waist band:
This is the slightly tricky bit, making this fit with out using elastic. My waist is a *cough* 36″ and I cut my band just under 32″. The T-shirting that I wanted to use for the waist band was very light so I underlined it with a plain white as well.
Assuming you are doing the same for sturdiness, cut two lengths of material the length you have decided for your waist band + 1″ for seam allowance by twice the width of your waist band +1″
Lay one layer on top of the other making sure that the ‘out’ side of your top fabric is showing and then pin the two short ends together to make a loop of material, right sides together.
Once you have sewn this then fold the band in half, right side out, and pin to the inside of your trousers, which are still inside out. It is a good idea to mark the quarters of the waist band before doing this to make sure it is evenly spaced when attached.
When sewing this make sure to pull the waist band out to match the trouser fabric. When doing this be sure to hold the material in front and behind the needle other wise you are fighting your machine trying to feed the material through. Sew up the waist band.
I should probably note here that I used a double needle throughout my sewing as I always do with knits or lycra. If you don’t have a double needle you can use a zig zag stitch or a stretch stitch on your machine. I just find the stretch stitch takes so long and the zig zag leaves slightly uneven seams.
Now remember to take all the pins out – unlike me – and enjoy your lovely comfy, if not the worlds most flattering, ‘pants’ 😀
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| Look Comfy … and a good thing too as that room really needs a tidy! Sorry all… |
These instructions took longer to write than the trousers took to make. But if they don’t make any sense please let me know. Im sure I will be making another pair of these soon so I can take more detailed photos if needed.
