Do you have a favorite pair of pleated pants, but you can't find a matching pattern? No problem. By following these instructions, you can create the look without having to take the pants apart. All you need is some pattern tracing cloth - a sheer material with dots 1" apart.
Steps:
- Establish a grain line. Do this by taking pants and holding them upside down by the pants legs. Fold them in half on the crease and match the seams from the inner and outer legs.
- Baste a seam all the way down the pants' seam on one side, making long stitches. Do this to the front and back of the pants.
- Next, take the pattern tracing cloth and cut a piece large enough to go all the way around one of the pant legs.
- Using the dots on the pattern tracing cloth as a guide, draw a grain line from top to bottom of the cloth.
- Match this line with the basted seam line, and pin together from bottom to top. Place pins approximately one inch apart.
- Now, you're ready to copy the pants. Working from the center of the leg out, pin another row of pins on the inside of the pants leg. Smooth the pants as you go. (It is best to work on a flat surface for this project.)
- When you get to the crotch, insert another pin at a right angle so that once the cloth is lifted from the pants, you'll know where the crotch of your pattern is.
- Stop pinning in the area of the pleats - somewhere around the waist.
- Repeat these steps for the side seam of the outer leg.
- Continue pinning along the inside seam where pants are flat all the way up to the top. (Many pleated pants are made so that the grain line comes up into a pleat.)
- Now, make a mark on top of each pin running along both the inner and outer seams.
You have created the outline of the pants for a pattern; now you are going to work on the pleats and pockets.
Steps:
- First, measure the pleats by sliding a ruler into a pleat. Whatever measurement you get, multiply it by two because pleats have a front and a back.
- Make marks along the top of the cloth, using the pants as a guide, to distinguish the waist.
- Going to your pattern tracing cloth, find the outside of the leg and shift the cloth inward so that you can draw in the pleats.
- Decide where the pleats will go on your pattern. Using your pants as a guide, measure how far in from the hip the first pleat is and mark that same distance on the pattern. You'll need three marks, one each for the inside, outside and middle of the pleat.
- If you have two pleats, repeat this step.
- Once you're through, make sure your marks are parallel to the grain line. (Bear in mind that most pleats extend to about 3-1/2" long.)
- Finally, make a mark for the pocket opening on the pattern tracing cloth if the pants have a pocket. Again, use the pants as your template.
Now it's time to begin working on the hem and the seam allowances of the pants.
Decide whether you want a 1-1/4" hem or a 1-1/2" hem, and mark it accordingly. So that the hem isn't smaller than the end of the pant, after you draw the base of the hem line turn it up on top of the leg and trace the sides from the pants. This way they will match up exactly. Once the hem is laid back down, it will flare out a bit away from the pants ankle. To make your seam allowances, consider going with a 1/2" seam. This is a good measurement because it allows you extra room if you find that you need it later on in the project. Simply trace a 1/2" seam allowance all the way around the entire pants pattern. Let's move on to the back of the pants.
- Take another piece of pattern tracing cloth and pin it along the basted line on the pants as a point of reference.
- Again, work from the center of the leg out, pinning along the inside seam of the leg.
- At the crotch make a right angle with the pins.
- On the back of the pants, you'll have darts instead of pleats. Measure them from the pants and draw them on the pattern. Don't forget to measure how long they are and draw them accordingly.
- Mark off the top, bottom and front of the pants legs, and add the seam allowances as you did before.
- Cut the pattern pieces and put them in a plastic bag.
- Be sure to write down yardage on the bag so that you won't have to remember.
