Last weekend, I had to roll up one of my pant legs to keep it out of the way while I practiced Lutzes. I don't like wearing skin-tight pants, but since I'm on the ice five days a week, I do need sport pants.
Sportswear designers have decided that no one wants their ankles covered - even a shortie like me can't find a pair that will come down over the skates properly unless they flare the bottoms to fit a second person! Target had a great style of Champion sweat pants last year, but they made them capri-length this year, arrrrggghhh...
I had three pair of pants sitting in the closet from about two years ago. They were ridiculously long with straight (wide) legs, but they fit well. Last night, I had the zigzag sewing machine out, so I pulled out my Singer books, looked at some notes Skate@Delaware gave me ages ago, and took on the task of shortening and tapering the pants.
Since I was the only person home, I didn't want to use straight pins, so I pulled out my pack o' safety pins, which worked well to let me try on and pin without poking myself. I also tried the pants on inside out, so the pins would be in the right places to sew - just left a little slack to allow for right-side out wearing.
These were stretchy workout pants with a bit of lycra in the fabric content. I planned a 1-1/2" hem allowance, so I could turn it twice. That gives it a bit of weight and prevents the edges from curling.
. I put the pants on and marked the front lengths with a safety pin.
. I wanted them to come down on my foot a bit longer so that they wouldn't be too short when I wore skates.
. I also marked the knee height with a pin on both legs.
. The outside leg seams (which had piping) were pretty straight on my leg but the inseam was a little too flared.
. I pinned the bottom inseam so that my skates would fit under the pant bottom without too much flare.
. I laid the pants out and saw that I had to cut the pants in order to hem them.
. I cut the bottom hem accordingly.
. Using chalk and sewing pins, I "tapered" from the knee-marker to the inseam marker I had safety-pinned earlier.
. Stitched the new inseam using a straight-line stitch, then a zig-zag to prevent unraveling.
. Trimmed the seam close to the zig-zag. I figured this was the same thing as using the serger since my serger doesn't trim.
. Pinned the hem in place by turning up partway, then turning up again before pinning.
. Stitched the hem in place with a straight stitch, just stretching the fabric slightly.
It took about 20 minutes start-to-finish and now I have a nice pair of stretchy workout pants that aren't dangerous.
Cool. It's always good to be able to recycle stuff you don't wear into usable skating gear.
Awesome! It's always great to be able to "fix" things like this!