Palazzo Pants Tutorial

These pants were a long time coming! 1) procrastination got the best of me 2) there were a few other projects I wanted to do aka avoid making my first pair of pants 3) I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. But I was so rewarded.

So I’m a bad little kid at heart and when I was raiding JoAnn’s red line fabric 50% off sale I looked for a palazzo pant pattern with no intention of buying it. Really what I was looking for was a little help. How much fabric am I going to need? How wide should the leg be at the bottom?

I found pay dirt! Couldn’t tell you about the pattern, who made it or any other details but you’ll find a quick tutorial below so deets on the pattern are not necessary. I made mental note of the yardage (2.5 yds), 33 3/4″ circumference and off I went. I bought some great rayon fabric. It’s bright, it’s flowy, and it screams HELLO! I was instantly excited.

Let the pants making process commence! I used a big roll of paper, a pair of jeans, yardstick and a pencil to make my pattern. I made sure to grab a long pair of jeans because I want to wear heels with the pants. Fold the pants in half at the crotch area and lay it in the middle of your paper. Trace around the pants.

I found the center of the leg at the bottom and made a mark 16 7/8″ to both the left and right. This gave the 33 3/4″ width at the bottom of the pant leg. Make a line connecting all three marks.

From the butt and crotch, extend a line down to the new pant leg width. This is a quarter of your pants with no seam allowance. I added 5/8″ marks all around the pants, and connected the dots. Insta-seam allowance!

The waistband of the pants I did separately. You need two pieces of fabric the width of your elastic (I used 2″) plus 1 1/4″ for seam allowance on each side. The length is your hips plus the 1 1/4″. Gotta be able to get the pants up over your behind ya know?

Down to cutting… Take your fabric fold in half width wise and then length wise. One long side should have two folded edges the other long side should have 4 layers. Put the butt side of your pattern along the folded edge. Pin it down or however your normally tackle a pattern piece. Carefully cut it out. You should have two pieces.

Sew up the inseam on both.

Flip one pair right side out. Put the right side leg into the wrong side and sew together the crotch.

Take the two waist pieces and sew them together along the length. Sew the width together to create a loop.

I sewed the elastic to the waistband so the elastic didn’t move about. For this you have to stretch the elastic as you sew.

Attach the waistband to the pants. I sewed the right sides together for the outside then hand stitched the inside down. You can stitch in the ditch but it never comes out looking nice for me.

Lastly, hem the pants. I sergered the edge, folded over twice and top stitched. I didn’t have to finagle with the length because the pants I used were the perfect length.

One adjustment I did make to all this was, I added two front darts to the pants. I was getting this saggy crotch thing from too much fabric gathering. I also took some length out of the waistband otherwise the two pieces wouldn’t have matched up.

Look at the awesome width to the legs. It nice because the flare starts from the waist so the only fitting you really have to do is to the waist.

See no butt hugging. Rayon soft and flowy drape.

I think that is the “Are you getting this?” face.

Butterfly Tank Tutorial

I made this shirt about a month ago.  I’ve been meaning to get a tutorial together for it but well… I’ve been lazy.  I’ve also been working on other projects.  Like the mash-up from last week.  I created this shirt after buying one similar from a consignment shop.  I liked the consignment shirt but thought I could do a bit better.  Like the back was awkward and you couldn’t wear a normal or razorback bra with it. It had to be a strapless bra and those damn things don’t stay put. Here’s the finished product.

Couple of the front…

And one of the back. Since the back goes from shoulder to shoulder it’s regular bra comfort all day. The fabric is a kind of heavy polyester. It makes the top a little stiff but it keeps the tie in place so I’m happy. Fussy is not pretty.

I took the measurements straight from the other shirt and added in the seam allowance of 5/8″. I typically wear a medium shirt. Depending on your personal size or how long you want the shirt, you’ll need to adjust the numbers.

It starts off with two rectangles for the front and back. Then one long strip for the tie. If you don’t have fabric long enough for the tie you can cut shorter pieces then sew them together to get the proper length.

Once you get those three pieces cut, you need to add the arm hole area. I marked on my fabric the two measurements and then drew a gentle curve free hand style. Sew the two sides together.

That’s all the cutting. Three pieces and a few cuts. Not too hard right? I hemmed the bottom of the shirt next. I knew the length would be right since the consignment shirt fit me well and I trusted my measurements that I took multiple times. Ya know the old adage measure twice, cut once? Well I’m crazy and measure three or four.

I used a serger on all my raw edges of fabric and I had the width on my machine set to 5/8″. When I ironed I folded it at the serger edge and folded once more ironing each time.

Onward to the arms! Same type of deal here as the bottom but instead of folding twice I only did it once. Looking back I wish I would have folded over twice to make the arm holes just a touch larger. Again iron before you sew but you’re going to sew closer to the edge.

This part might be the most difficult to explain. You’re going to fold the edge over and press. Fold it again at the 1 1/8″. Go ahead and sew up the back by top stitching straight across. Be sure you don’t sew the edges closed because the tie needs to snake through there. The front is different. There needs to be two button holes in the center about 1 1/2″ apart and 3/4″ tall. You’ll need to center them vertically as well in the 1 1/8″ section. After making your buttonholes sew that piece down like you did the back.

Sewing the tie is easy. Sew a long tube, flip it right side out, press and top stitch. I made my ends pointy by folding in the ends before I top stitched them.

Thread the tie through the buttonhole, around the back piece and up through the other buttonhole. If your tie is long enough you can tie it in a bow but I let my hang with a single tie.

TADA! It’s awesome shirt time! Can you tell even I’m impressed with myself? lol