Anthropologie Inspired Pants Alteration



 

I love shopping at Anthropologie just to get ideas.  I am inspired by their fearless use of materials, prints and trims that sometimes makes my sewing mind just cringe at the thought - "You can't pair that fabric with that trim, it's just not right".  But Anthropologie frees you from the sewing rules of yesterday and gives you the power to say "Yes you can" and it looks great!  So I thought I would give their style of fabric mixology a try and here's what I came up with. 

 

I decided to experiment on a pair of lined wool tweed pants I picked up at my local Salvation Army a few years ago. Yes, they have been hanging on my "to do" rack for quite awhile just waiting for the right bit of inspiration.  I starting looking thru my scrap box to see what I could find that would compliment the black and white tweed.   I found a leftover wool sleeve with a herringbone pattern and a piece of a pant hem from a prior alteration. These would be perfect! 

 

The pants already had in-seam pockets in the front, but I wanted to highlight them a little.  I measured the length of the pocket and designed a flap that would work. A picture of the pattern for the flap and the back pocket is below with seam allowances added.

 

I also made a tagboard template of the pocket without seam allowances.  Tagboard templates are very helpful when you need to sew curves and points.  Simply pin (or hold if you can) the template in place and sew right next to the edge of the template.  This way you aren't guessing where you should stop for the point of the flap and both sides will turn out perfectly. 

 

 

After making 4 pocket flaps with buttonholes and two lined pockets, it was time to sew them on!  The front flaps weren't behaving well under the machine so I ended up finishing them by hand in order for them to lay correctly. 

Sew on the back pockets, add the flaps and finish them off with handmade clay buttons and Voila!  A nice pair of wool lined pants with a little "Anthropologie" flair to them. 

I hope these pants will inspire you to create your own version of Anthropologie Inspired Pants. 

Happy sewing!