Tuesday, August 30, 2011

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!

14 comments:

Rachel Annie said...

This is so AWESOME! And they look so cute on you too!!!

Honeybee said...

You are so crafty...Henry is very lucky to have such a great mom. Pretty soon you will be stitching up the knees on his pants. :)

The Blairs said...

Those turned out fabulous. So, here is what I'm thinking. You know how alloy has cheap pants that are super long, but they are too low and tight for me? Maybe I could order some and do that to them, but roll it down for when I'm not pregnant. Then they would fit and not show my butt crack and be long.

Do you think it would work like that?

Alison + Brandon said...

This is totally awesome! I am not even tall but it is still hard to find maternity pants that look cute...But alas, I am not crafty nor do I own a sewing machine...I've mostly been wearing skirts.

Unknown said...

Those turned out great!

l i z said...

um...i guess i should be the one asking you for maternity clothes next time around. holy cuteness!

Elaine said...

Nice! I'm gonna have to try this out later!

Diana said...

What a great project! They look great and I'm sure it's nice to use a pair of pants that you already know are comfy.

Laura said...

This is awesome. You are so talented! Nice work!

Unknown said...

Why did I never think of this when I was preggo?

Jessica Dahlquist said...

Very impressive! They look great.

Shantillylace said...

Wow! I'm impressed! Good-fitting maternity pants are sooo hard to find!

Emelro said...

i'm going to make these.
and stuff them.
and pretend like i'm pregnant.



oh and tom is so awesome!!!!!!!!!! i can't wait for you guys to meet him :)

yourstrulydear said...

bahahahaha i love you emily