Crazy Pants

Have you ever had this experience where you look at a piece of fabric, and your first thought is, "Wow that is really hideous." and your second thought is "But also kind of awesome. Where can I fit that in my sewing queue?"

This happens to me quite frequently.

"I have never seen a more obnoxious seizure-inducing shade of electric blue. Where could I put that on a piece of clothing?"

"I can't buy that, orange just isn't a flattering color! Does it count if the fabric is half yellow?" 

"Seriously?! A tent dress?! That's not going to look good on anybody!...Except me. If I make it in that awesome psychedelic 60s print..."

That's the sort of gut reaction I had when I found these pants.

Yes. FOUND them. In a STORE. With two fully-formed legs and a TAG. Cut me a break, I was shopping for college clothes!

I mean, the picture pretty much says it all. I wear the pants around my dorm constantly, but I'm afraid to wear them outside my dorm because I might show up on Google Earth.

*Note: I am apologizing for the nosedive in quality of my pictures. I now live in a college dorm, and I have a camera but I no longer have a tripod or a clicker or anything. These pictures were taken by photographing myself in the mirror of my closet. See?:

Featuring: my overstuffed closet, and a bedsheet hung over a pipe on the ceiling behind me to mimic a backdrop. As Tim Gunn would say, "Make it work!"

*End note. :) 

For some reason, people seem to notice when I wear these pants. My flowy pants have been known to transfix passersby. A friend in my dorm is convinced that I never wear anything but these pants (*not true. She just doesn't notice what I'm wearing unless I'm wearing the pants). I have even been told that they are so much a part of my identity, that I practically wouldn't be the same person if I didn't own The Pants.

It's fate. Crazy comfy pants are my new wardrobe staple.

So I made three more pairs!

Crazy pants are pretty my substitute for sweatpants. They're just as comfortable, but they've got so much more character. Plus, you can do laundry in crazy pants and look like you're making a fashion statement as opposed to (what you're really doing) dredging up lounge clothes out of your two-week old closet.

PLUS, crazy pants are a really quick project--a few hours at most. I whipped out a pair when I was home for Thanksgiving break, and made two more over Christmas (in addition to a coat and almost every dessert recipe on this blog!)

This was the first pair of pants I made.

The only way I could photograph the back of the pants. 

I used the pants from a Very Easy Vogue pattern: 

V9159, a tunic and flare-leg pants pattern.

I think I made a size 10 in the waist and cut down to an 8 elsewhere based on the measurements on the back of the pattern. I also added some length to the pattern when I cut it out, which probably wasn't necessary but I like to be safe. The fabric I used was an ITY knit from FabricMart; I think I got it on sale for a few bucks per yard, and I LOVE the blue/black/yellow coloring and the 60s-inspired print! 

In my second pair of pants, I wanted to try to replicate the flared silhouette of the original Crazy Pants, so I altered the pattern I used for the first pair of pants. I marked where the widest part of my hips would fall on the pattern piece; I then decided how wide I wanted the leg to be at the bottom and drew a straight line from the hips to the hem. The circumference around the bottom of the leg ended up being 35 inches. :O

This fabric is an athleticwear knit from FabricMart. The colors are very vibrant and it has kind of a sparkly sheen on it. I didn't have enough fabric to cut exactly on-grain, and the pants turned out fine. Oddly, I did have some problems with the side seams puckering, which I was little worried about. Then I put on the pants, and realized that nobody was going to notice the puckery seams.

Oh, and just in case you were afraid these pants couldn't quite keep up with the originals: 

I did in fact replace the waist elastic with a big stretchy panel, as if to cover as much of my surface area as possible with neon fabric. :D

For my third pair, I went the other direction and made leggings. 

I scavenged the pattern from a Cynthia Rowley pattern in my stash. 

Simplicity 1372, a top and leggings pattern.

There is supposed to be an exposed zipper in the back of the leggings, which I did not include; unfortunately, I forgot to cut the center back seam bigger to make up for the space where the zipper was supposed to be, so I just made that seam really small and I think took in the center front a little bit to make the front/back waistband the same length and it worked well. I also had to take in the leggings a little bit around the knees, which is strange because they fit ok everywhere else. 

Once again, this fabric is a product of (totally justified) FabricMart impulse buying. It's a beautiful, thick, primarily cotton, lime green and tangerine Pucci knit. 

This has nothing to do with the post, but I love Pucci fabric.

Doesn't my fabric kind of look like Jupiter? 

If you appreciate that comparison, you would really enjoy moon or frying pan. 

That's my pants collection! 

I haven't posted in a while because school has been really busy! 

ice skating with friends! 

Look, some homework I haven't deleted from my phone yet!

Making actual food (as opposed to just dessert...)

Snow!!!

And I've been publishing on the MIT admissions blog! 

And this is a picture of the State House that I took from my room with my new camera! A little more picturesque than the inside of my closet :)