Tapering Pants

[FigureSpins]

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.

[katz in boots]

Cool.  It's always good to be able to recycle stuff you don't wear into usable skating gear.

[Skate@Delaware]

Awesome! It's always great to be able to "fix" things like this!