Basic Pants

A couple of folks I know are interested in getting started making simple clothes. There are already a ton of similar tutorials out there but each person does things a tiny bit differently so one more won’t hurt, right? So here’s my way:

John & Caroline (my brother & his better half) bought Josie some pants that I LOVE. The fit is perfect and I’d like to have more — and in larger sizes as she grows over the next few months. This first pair will be out of some old, crappy knit fabric I have that’s stained. It’s perfect for working out the kinks in the pattern. Once I’m happy with it, I’ll make some pairs in better fabric.

Step 1: Grab some coffee.

I like to start with freezer paper, especially with smaller items like this. It’s cheap, easy to work with, handles tracing and writing well (on the non-shiny side).

Turn the pants inside out and fold in half, making sure to pull out the crotch point. Lay on the paper and trace.

Then, because I’m weird, I flip it over and trace the other side so that I have one of a front quarter and one of a back quarter. These pants have side seams but I’ll be making them without a side seam. Tracing both front and back (they are different in side-seam pants most of the time) allows me to average them — you’ll see further down.

You should now have two tracings.

Cut them out, leaving a bit around the tracing for further adjustments and seam allowances.

Pin the two tracings together. You can see where they are not the same. Part of that is the difference of the front and back and part of it is just crappy tracing on my part as well as difficulty getting them to lay flat. No worries, just get out your scissors and start trimming until they’re the same. While you’re at it, you can make any obvious adjustments. This is also a good time to recheck the pants against the pattern, bit by bit, trimming as needed.

Then, I lay it on my cutting mat with a grid and straighten things up if required. Pants are not completely square so, depending on the cut, you may need to curve in at the waist and account for leg tapers, etc. (See why I didn’t worry about exact tracing above and left so much extra room in cutting it out?)

You now have two matching patterns. I put one away for my backup files and use the other for working.

Lay the pattern on your folded fabric. Since we’re using a knit here (stretchy fabric — much more forgiving to begin with and more comfy to wear), feel the stretch. If one direction stretches more than the other, put the stretchier grain side-to-side, so that the stretchiest give is around the butt, rather than up & down the leg. (Did that make sense?)

Don’t forget to lay the side side (not the crotch side) of the pattern on the fold of the fabric. This will save you a side seam.

Now do the second side.

You should now have two pieces of fabric cut out.

Each piece will look something like this once unpinned and unfolded.

Now refold each piece, right sides together, and pin. Take care to match up the crotch points.

Start sewing at the crotch point and work your way down the leg.

Do that for both pieces and you’ll end up with two leg tubes (with unsewn tops).

Turn one leg tube right side out while leaving the other inside out.

Place the right side out leg tube inside the wrong side out leg tube. Right sides will be facing each other in there.

Match the crotch seams carefully and pin.

Sew from top through crotch back to top — from bellybutton to buttcrack, taking the scenic route through the crotch.

Voila! You now have what should be recognizable as pants.

This is the point where Josie started reaching out of her prison, grabbing my quilting sketches to wad & chew, then throwing them all over the floor.

That, and my phone ran out of battery because I forgot to charge it. I’ll finish the pants with waist elastic and leg hems once my battery is recharged. (I take all of these pics with my phone camera.)

To be continued…