Black Harem Pants

If you have a really good memory, you may well remember these weird pants I made about a year ago. The problem I had with them was that they were grey, and soon after making them, I learned I was T4. I wondered why I hated the pictures of me at the end of that post. Now, it all makes sense. Anyways, I really wanted to remake them in black. So, I did.

I used the same pink shorts as last time as my main pattern pieces. I love this shiny black jersey material. Really edgy and great for this project.

I also used a pair of sweat pants to use as a reference for the length of the pants. I cut around them.

I did something different at the ankles, though. I curved them in slightly. This will make the pants drape differently around the ankles. I think it looks really modern.

After cutting all the pieces out, the first step was to fold the pockets in half and stitch the bottom of them.

Then, I pinned and sewed the pockets to the top of the front pieces.

Next, I pinned pleats into the sides of the front pieces.

Then, I pinned the front and back pieces together and sewed the outer seam of each leg.

This is what the seam I just talked about looks like from the right side.

Next, I pinned and sewed the "crotchal region."

Then, I sewed the inseams together in one big, long seam.

Last step: sewing on the waist and ankle bands. Notice how the ankles curve in here, and notice that effect on the last few pictures. It's subtle, but it's a neat effect.

The End.

Harem Pants

February 2014

So about a year ago I ordered a metric ton of these "Harem Style" Capri pants. I was really excited because they were only like $4.00 each (from China) and had really cool pockets, and so I got them in like...every color. Anyways, they ended up being paper thin and pretty much see-through. Not cool, China. Not cool.

Anyways, the pattern of them was so unique, that before giving them all to Goodwill, I cut one apart to use for my own pattern. Because the pockets are so unusual, I knew I'd probably forget how to construct them later, so I numbered the seams in the order they should be sewn. Any pre-planning you can conquer early helps to cut your construction time into a fraction of the normal time!

Skipping ahead in time: The only difference I added was to lengthen the legs so they are now sort of really fashionable sweatpants.

The End!