How to Sew & Make Lounge Pants

Choose thread that best matches the color of your fabric.

When you come home from a long day spent wearing office clothes, or a hot day spent in jeans, it is nice to have a pair of comfortable lounge pants to slip on. Lounge pants are the perfect remedy for ditching uncomfortable clothes, while still remaining decent enough to run to the mailbox or answer your door. Fortunately, you can find patterns for lounge pants that are fairly simple to make whatever your degree of sewing experience.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• Pants pattern
• Scissors
• Straight pins
• Fabric
• Elastic
• Sewing machine
• Sewing thread

Instructions

1. Take the necessary measurements. Use a flexible measuring tape to determine the measurements for your waist, hips, inseam, outer pants length and crotch depth. Crotch-depth measurements are taken by running the tape from the front center of the waistline, between the legs, to the back center of the waistline. Take crotch measurements while both standing and sitting, to allow for a comfortable fit.

2. Measure the waist where you want the waistline of your lounge pants to sit. Take hip measurements around the widest part of your hips. Measure the inseam while you are barefoot and standing up straight. Have a friend measure from the inside thigh, approximately one inch below the crotch, and run the tape in a straight line to the floor. To find the length of the outer pants leg, run the tape from the line of the waist measurement, along the outside of your leg to the floor.

3. Choose a fabric for your lounge pants. Use lightweight, breathable cottons or stretchy rayon spandex blends for maximum comfort. Find a pattern that fits well and reflects your level of sewing experience. Because patterns are designed to fit standard sizes, they don't always fit well on a wide variety of body types.

4. Concentrate on your hip, waist and crotch measurements when choosing a pattern to find the best fit. If your inseam and outer leg measurements fall in between pattern sizes, choose the longer-legged pattern. Shortening the length of pants is much easier than lengthening them. Look for patterns with a simple elastic waist and loose legs for comfortable lounging.

5. Cut out the pattern pieces for your pants along the solid black lines. Dashed lines indicate where to sew your seams. Fold the fabric so it is doubled and pin the pattern pieces to it. Make sure the pattern pieces are laid out in the same direction on printed fabric, or the print won't match when you construct the pants.

6. Cut out the fabric pieces according to the pattern and remove the paper pattern. Pin the fabric pieces together along the seams, so that the seams will be sewn on the inside of the fabric. Sew your lounge pants according to the instructions included with the pattern. Measure the elastic for the waistband so that it fits your waist with minimal stretching, or the waist will be too tight.

Tips & Warnings

• If the legs of your pants are too long, measure how much shorter they need to be. Fold the excess fabric inside the pants leg and pin it. Run a quick seam around the fold to hem each leg to the perfect length.

• Fold and store your paper pattern pieces for reuse.

References

• New Mexico State University, Making Perfect Pants
• Threads Magazine, Choose the Correct Pattern Size
• Transprism Shop, How to Take Measurements