craftgrrl | Fun with Pants .... (Reply)

I apologise in advance for a distinct lack of pictures, but this will be corrected eventually.

So I had this pair of corduroy pants. They were soft, they were comfy, then they were ripped down one butt-cheek courtesy of a file cabinet accident at work. Ripped in such a way that I could not fix them and continue to wear them to work. Lacking enough appropriate outfits for work, I needed to make somethine else equally office-appropriate. So, here's what I did:

- I cut off the legs as high as I could and removed the zipper and the waistband. I took off the back pockets for fun later and a couple small pieces for my quilt. I tossed the remaiming scraps.

- I opened up the legs at the outside seam on either side and undid the hem at the bottom of the legs.

- I put said legs together to form a giant tube. It had a bit of a neat shape, as the original pants were a little flared. I left a little space in one side seam to put in the zipper. I installed said zipper.

- I flipped the whole mess upside down, so the original bottom of the pants is now at the waist. I dressed up my trusty duct-tape dress form to put a couple of pleats in to fit the waist. I sewed down the tops of the pleats so they would stay.

- I took the former pants waistband, button and all, and sewed it back on to the skirt, lining up the button so it was over the side zipper. This was irritating, as I had to adjust the pleats a bit to fit the length of the original waistband. But, it was done and looked good.

- I undid the back center seam a little (6" or so + 2" for the hem) and sewed the sides back to make a cute little kick pleat (and so I could walk), then I pressed & sewed the hem.

- Victorious, I wore my happy new skirt to work. The best compliment I got was "Where did you buy that?" Only one person recognized them as my orevious pants and only enough to comment on the similarity of the fabric.

I have plans to convert a pair of men's dress pants that a friend of mine is giving up, just cuz the fabric is all soft and nifty, plus possibly making a shorter skirt and top out of another pair. In my experience, doing the conversion this way has given me better results than the old "undo the inseam" way , plus I can convert pants that have met with unsightly rips in the rear or crotchular region.

I'd like to see what other people come up with using this technique.