Oct 28, 2011

harem pants pattern

it all started some time ago when I bought my first pair of harem pants on Etsy. I love them and wear then often. for example last monday morning when I pulled them on over my PJs and went to school (it was cold outside and I enjoyed secretly wearing my PJs all day - I'm lazy like that..)

then grandma gave me the best selection of adorable vintage fabrics ... and I made up this pattern - inspired by my old harem pants...

first step is cutting off the top part of some old sweatpants (this is optional - you can sew it all in fabric, but this is more comfy and also simpler)
than use the rest of your sweat pants to make cuffs for your new pants - these will go around your ankles so make sure they are wide enough to fit your legs (remember that sweatpants-fabric is stretchy and we want it snug)
now you will cut the fabric - I used old dress from grandma - so I took advantage of the side seams and pockets. if you have new fabric, you'll have to cut 4 rectangles ("A") -use one of your pants to measure the length and I made mine 23 cm wide ...
sew them together on one side to create two side panels -if you want to add pockets do it now ...(ignore the strings of fabric on the picture I cut them off later)
this is the picture of two side panels on top of my old pants - you see that the middle piece is missing, we'll create it next...
for the back of my pants I used combination of two colors -2x "C" and 2x"D" (because I didn't have enough of the blue fabric and because I like to keep it colorful)
and two times "B" for the front...
the bottom of your side panels is also a bottom of the pants - it should be wider than the sweatpants fabric pieces...
pin then together - I put pins on the sides and in the middle, then I ruffled the excess of the fabric...sew
sew the "C" and "D" together ...
and sew both "Bs" toether - this is what you'll get:
now sew "As" to the joined "Bs" and add another "As" than "C-Ds" ..it will form a kind of oddly shaped "skirt" ...turn it inside out and sew the inside "arc" together - this will form your pants.

all you have to do is add a sweatpants top - use lots of pins
Don't ruffle the back - sew it flat there, then create ruffles on the front part...

all done!
sorry for the bad light, it's late and I didn't want to use flash....
perfect for lazy winter mondays spent in lecture rooms, or just for chillin' in your dorm room...
they're cute for summer or whenever you feel whimsy... I felt really odd the first time I put on harem pants but now I'm addicted...

13 comments:

  1. terrific thank you :)

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  2. This is super cute. I wish you gave some measurements in your diagram. Even if they were according to your size, I could at least adjust according to my own size. These are the best looking harem pants I've found so far on pinterest that include a pattern. Totally the style I'm looking to make... only it seems that I'd need my own pair of harem pants to copy first. ='( Any chance you will take some measurements to add to all your pattern pieces? I'd be ever so grateful.

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  3. Hello (: This is a really cool tutorial and I plan to use it one day but for now is there any way you can give us a link to the seller of your original pants? Thank you and have a great day!

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    1. Hi Sarah :)

      thank you or the comment....I got the original pants from Thaitee on Etsy...Last year I've traveled to Malaysia and I both three more pairs right there on the market -the exact same style and quality and I'm planning to sell two of them (for 20 euro) in my shop - one is purple and the other one brown...I'll soon post photos and list them in the shop...let me know if you'd be interested :)

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    2. Thanks for replying so quickly (: And I'd love to look at the pants you are going to put up in your shop. Will you be posting measurements on the listings? I have big hips so I'd want to make sure they would fit before potentially buying.

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    3. I'm currently traveling (last few days of summer vacation) , but I could send you the photos and measurements on Sunday/Monday so you can decide :)

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  4. Hello (: It's me again. This time I have a question about the pattern. Both the B piece and the C+D piece have a small straight line by the arc for the crotch. What I was wondering is when the arc is sewn are those small straight pieces lined up with the leg (A) parts and sewn as a straight line or are they just incorporated with the arc? I'm just not clear what I would do because any other Harem pants tutorial has as smooth of an arc as possible. Basically, I'm wondering what the C piece is supposed to do when the pants are sewn.

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    1. hi...sorry for the late reply... now when I'm looking at the pattern - I did a really sloppy job :D - the thing is that when I sew I usually leave pretty wide edge around my pieces which will be sewn together (people usually leave 0.5 cm or something like that as a hem) but I'm not very good at sewing straight lines (at least I wasn't back then) so I tend to leave more extra fabric on the sides :P ...the straight line you're talking about will at the end be incorporated in the arc - you can already cut it like an arc at the beginning, but I find it easier to join the pieces like this and then cut off excess fabric on the inside... the arc continues without any visible interruption from the inside of the leg (piece A) to the bottom side of B (or C+D) ...it could actually be dine in one piece of fabric but I wanted to combine different patterns...

      I already have photos of the pants I got on Malaysia and I will post them on my shop today... https://www.etsy.com/shop/Walnuttreebuttons?ref=hdr_shop_menu

      the waist is 84 cm around un-stretched (106 stretched) it can also be made smaller than 84 cm with the string ...

      and it's 92cm long from waist down....

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    2. here's the actual link to the harem pants in my shop ... I didn't post photos of me wearing them , but I can also take those or any additional photos - just let me know :)

      https://www.etsy.com/listing/244413083/purple-or-brown-harem-pants?ref=shop_home_active_1

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    3. I've already updated photos of me in the pants (just for the reference I'm 164 cm tall and 60kg :P ) - link should be the same.... if you have any more questions please don't hesitate to ask :)

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