tutorial: how to make maternity pants

ok, so i am kind of tall. like 5'11" kind of tall. so i require a pants inseam of at least 35". the longer, the better. so i knew i wouldn't be able to find maternity pants that were not only long enough, but also didn't look frump-a-licious. soooo...i scoured the internet and looked at a lot of tutorials, and sort of combined a bunch of them. i think this is the best way to take an existing pair of normal pants, and convert them to maternity pants. these are a pair of my work pants, which i bought last summer for 10 bucks. here is my version on how to make your own maternity pants:

materials needed:
-pair of pants you can still at least sort of zip up (my pre-pregnancy pants worked just great, and i'm 22 weeks along right now. and i'm pretty sure they will fit for my whole pregnancy, unless my butt gets about 15x bigger)
-t-shirt (the smaller the better, even one that was pretty tight before your pregnancy)
-seam ripper
-scissors
-sewing machine
-fabric marker/pencil (a regular marker would be fine if you mark it where you won't be able to see it after you sew up the zipper flap)

instructions:
(click pictures to enlarge)

start with the pair of pants you want

do this for all the belt loops, and it will make cutting it up much easier

try them on and zip them up. mark where it feels comfortable. i marked this with a fabric marker. then later when i cut the front, i left a little extra fabric to allow for seam allowance.

most of the tutorials i found didn't have this step. but who needs a zipper for pants that will be zipper-less!? and who wants to sew over that? i cut that baby out asap!

remember, like i said before, leave some extra fabric above where you marked-- for seam allowance

then take your t-shirt you want to use:

i cut some extra off the bottom part of the tshirt, so it would fit smaller. i'm sure it would have been fine if i left it though.

i hope this makes sense. after i pinned the seams on the sides, then i stretched the shirt and pinned the front middle, and the back middle. then i stretched between pins and pinned the center of that area, and so on. [if you still don't get what i'm saying in this step, email me.]


i did the zig-zag stitch all the way around on the edges. i just forgot to take a picture afterwards.

you made it! try it on! the t-shirt i used won't fray when you cut it, so i left the edges raw. the t-shirt was tight enough that it stays up. you can always make a hem, or sew in some elastic on the top.

this is a weird picture, but i wanted to show how it looks with just the pants and the added t-shirt portion. you can fold the shirt down if you want to wear it under your belly.

long pants! with my shirt pulled up...awkward...

yay! they look normal! and fit well!

i wore these pants to work today, and was amazed with how comfortable they were!! and they didn't fall apart, so thats always good ;) no one even knew they were maternity pants (yes!). so thankfully this was a success, and now i have some more pants and t-shirts to rip up!