Ugliest Pants Ever

I have been looking for some light weight long pants for Malcolm that can be rolled up and buttoned to a capri length.  When we leave for school in the mornings it is pretty cool, but it warms up quite a bit by the time we walk home.  I have looked everywhere for some, and they are hard to come by in the boy's section.  I have a pattern for some basic pants and thought that it couldn't be too hard to add a strap and some buttons so that they can be rolled up.

I had some fabric left over from a Halloween costume I made a couple of years ago, so I thought I would give it a try.  Since I was recycling the costume skirt into pants, I only had just enough length if I reused the waistband as it was.  Since it was already sewn as an elastic casing, I thought it would simplify things.  Instead, the whole thing was a disaster from beginning to end.  The only simple and straight forward part was adding the straps and buttons to make the pants convertible.  In the future, I might just add them to pants he already has instead of starting from scratch.

Lets look at a few pictures and count the ways these went wrong, shall we?

Long view, front.

Problem #1. The Fabric: I have no idea what this fabric is. When I needed it for my Halloween costume, it was the right color, a good weight, had a little stretch, and was on clearance for a good price. The odd thing is that sometimes it looks matte and other times it looks shiny. Ironing the wrinkles out and press the seams only made the shininess more prominent.

Problem #2. The Grain: Because I cut these pants from a skirt, I couldn't cut it on the grain. Each of the four pieces runs a different direction and as a result, one leg is trying to twist itself into a circle.



Long view, back.


Problem #3. Length: I knew going in that it was going to be a close call to have these be long enough. I wish they were a half inch longer, but that isn't really the problem. The obvious problem is that one leg is about half an inch longer than the other. After I had them all sewn and was ready to hem them, I realized that the grain problem caused the ends to be extremely uneven and needed to be trimmed. The twisting made it impossible to measure them accurately, and I didn't quite get it right.



Roll-up, front.

Problem #4. The Waistband: Using a waistband that was pre-done should have made things easier, but it added several complications.

First, when I made the Halloween costume, I wasn't particularly careful. Since the waist was going to be elastic, I didn't worry about it if there was a small pucker or tuck here or there. There were not enough unblemished spots to get all four pieces cut with a nice flat waistband.

Next, since the skirt was curved, it did not quite line up with the waist on the pattern for the pants.

I made the pants with a flat front and an elastic back. The front center seam for the waistband is not even. There are elastic folds on the side seams where the sides were sewn together. There is also a funny elastic fold in the back. Since the back casing was in two pieces, I had to thread the elastic in first, then sew the back pieces together. It functions just fine, but it isn't pretty.



They don't look as bad on as they do when spread flat on a table, but he still won't be wearing them out of the house. However, I did learn a lot and think I can do it right the next time if I follow the direction and cut the full pattern on the grain of the fabric. I have some fabric I want to try a second pair with, but in the meantime, I ordered a couple of pairs of roll-up pants that he won't be embarrassed to be seen in.