Travel Pant Refashion-Tapering and Waistband adjustment

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I am traveling to Europe this summer--and even though I was there last summer, I find that once again, I'm shopping for just the right clothes.  This trip is a short time frame and the weather will probably be warm, but I get cold on planes, so pants make sense.   So, I started looking for some great travel pants.  I found great ones from Athleta--they are called the Trekkie Jogger, but they are $89.  I do love Athleta, and have many of their clothes--but $89 just wasn't in the budget (car repairs last week, upcoming dental expenses...not to mention the cost of the upcoming trip).  I tried to love something already in my wardrobe, but couldn't.  I wanted something lightweight, non-wrinkly, easy to dry and ankle length--plus I wanted secure pockets with zippers to hold things.  Tall order--but the Athleta pants did all that, for a price.

So I decided I'd hit my favorite thrift store and cross my fingers that I'd find the perfect pants (I actually have a lot of Athleta from thrift stores).  No luck--no one had purchased the Trekkie Jogger and donated it for me to find.  But I did find a pair of Eddie Bauer hiking pants that had potential.  The fabric was right, the size was close, they had some zippered pockets and they were long--and they were $4.  But they were also really boxy.

I've been using my sewing machine a lot this summer.  Mostly small mending projects--but I've done lots of alterations.  T-shirts that were just a little wide--a quick seam down each side and now its a fitted shirt! A clearance find shirt that the store only had in size 1X (great length for leggings though)--or how about tacking the top of a swimsuit in about an inch (more hips than chest for me).  These are not complicated alterations--but it makes my clothes fit right, which makes me feel more confident in them and more likely to wear them.   I can't tell you how grateful I am that my mom and grandma taught me to sew.  I bet I've fixed/changed about 7 items just this summer.  I usually avoid sewing pants, but tapering the legs seemed do-able; and it was.  It took about 1 hour to complete.

What you'll need:
Pants to taper
sewing machine
pins
thread
straight edge and chalk pencil (or washable marker)
elastic

Difficulty:  Beginner (if you can sew a straight line, you can do this)

Put the pants on inside out.  If you have a friend to help with the pinning, it would be easier, but I did it on myself--just be careful!  Figure out how narrow you want the pants to be at the ankle (test pin it and put your foot in and out to make sure it fits).  Then pin from ankle to crotch in a diagonal line that makes your taper evenly go down the pant leg. 

Once I had them pinned, I removed them, laid them flat on the table and fidgeted with the pinning so that the fabric was flat and I could see the general line that I would follow for sewing.  I got out my quilting ruler and used a chalk pencil to draw the line I would sew.  Then I unpinned and repinned the pants so  that everything was flat and smooth.

I used the longest stitch on my machine and did not backstitch and sewed along the chalk line.  I created an angle seam from the crotch all the way to the ankle.  Repeat for the other pant leg.  Take out the pins, turn the pants right side out and try them on.  If they are tapered to your liking, great!  If not, redraw the line to make them wider/narrower and sew again (if you accidentally made them too narrow the first time, you will have to unpick the seam and try again.  If they were too wide the first time, no big deal--just sew another line).  Once you are satisfied with the fit you can go back over the seam, backstitch the beginning and end, or be like me and use a serger to cut off the extra fabric and make the raw edges neat and tidy.  Just don't cut off the extra fabric of the pants until you are SURE that they are just the way you want them. 

Don't they look better?  More feminine?  Yeah, I thought so too.  But I did a bit more tweaking.  The pants were 1 size too big to begin with--so the waistband gapped in the back.  No one wants to see underwear hanging out the back of someone's pants.  Here's an easy trick.  Put in a bit of elastic in the back of the waistband.  Nothing that would scream "senior citizen" pants, but just enough stretch to keep the back of the pants from gapping.  I flipped the pants inside out again, and made two small cuts into the inside of the waist.  I decided I wanted the elastic to go from the outer edge of each pocket, which was about 10 inches total.





Note:  The zig zag line on the waistband was part of the original pants, I didn't do that.






I took a piece of 1/4" elastic that was about 14 inches long and put a safety pin on one end and threaded it through the two holes I'd made. I stretched it about 1 1/2 inches past the hole and pinned it in place--and did the same on the opposite end.  It looked really gathered laying on my sewing table, but when I tried the pants on, the gathers nearly disappeared.  Once I was pleased with the amount of stretch, I sewed over the end of the elastic a few times with the machine and then trimmed off the ends.  I used a tight zig-zag stitch to cover/close up the holes I had cut.  No one will notice as long as you use matching thread.

The Athleta version have elastic around the ankles, but I decided to add a gathered detail along the outside ankle instead.   The hardest part about this was getting the fabric of the ankle out of the way so that you are only sewing through the one side of fabric + the elastic. Measure up 5 inches from the hem on the wrong side of the fabric and pin the elastic on top. Place under the needle with the fabric on the bottom and elastic on the top. Sew a couple stitches to make sure the elastic won't come flying at you, then pull the elastic so its fully stretched and continue sewing along the outside seam until just before the hem.  Backstitch to hold it in place and then trim off the elastic.




Not too bad right? These altered pants now meet my needs.  They have the soft stretchy fabric that wicks moisture and dries quickly.  They have 3 pockets with zippers (and two without), they look a bit more dressy than the boxy hiking pants that they started out as.


As a last alteration, I wanted to add a temporary hidden pocket to hold my passport/money.  I sewed a rectangle pocket with a zipper at the top and then sewed it into the inside front waistband of the pants.  I will un-attach it after the trip, but it will make me feel more secure about traveling on crowded trains/subways.


 

There you go, my $4 version of expensive travel pants.  I'm pretty excited.  They are fitted without being uncomfortable and the fabric has plenty of stretch to make them perfect for long airplane rides.