Grateful Dead Lounge Pants

I had this idea for Matt's birthday back in September.  Then I procrastinated too long.  Suddenly, I didn't have enough time to pull it off in time for his birthday.  I was trying to figure out what to do as an alternative when Matt mentioned, for the second time in recent months, that his sleep/lounging-around-the-house pants were on their last legs.  With holes in both knees he had to be careful putting them on lest he catch a foot in one of the holes and tear the whole pant leg off.  It was entirely likely.  They were paper thin most places.

Aha!  Now that is something I could do for his birthday--make him a new pair of lounge pants.

I used his old pair of pants, a wide piece of cardstock, and the pattern for the boxers I make him and made a very acceptable knock-off.  But, that didn't seem special enough for a birthday present.  So, I added a red lightning bolt (part of the Grateful Dead's frequently used imagery) to the left thigh.  Bam!  They're even cooler than the original pair.  The pants are blue and the stitching entirely red.  The Grateful Dead use a lot of red and blue, too.   It was a little tricky to go around all the points on that bolt, but I'd traced a copy of it on the pants with peach-colored oil pastels (I really should get some chalk) so that gave me a good outline to follow.

Ginger supervised my project as it progressed.

I gave them to him on his birthday-eve when we were out in Minnesota.  He was pleased and wears them regularly.  He still hasn't thrown out the old holey pair though...  Apparently I need to make him another pair so he has something for when this pair is in the wash.