Upcycled Patchwork Party Pants

Before discovering that I could sew bespoke "cool shirts" for Matt, we bought him the coolest shirts we could find at the charity shops. One of these cool, secondhand shirts had a neat blue-and-red geometric print that I really liked.  

Unfortunately, the shirt had a dye-related mishap that took it out of Matt's rotation last year.  The print was so cool though that I added it to my fabric stash for future use.  I didn't have a vision for it, but squirreling away useable fabric is part of my strategy to avoid buying it for my sewing endeavors.  It is a practice that is equal parts thriftiness and sustainability.

A photo with our crew and the Hillberry sign on the final day of the festival.  10/8/2023

As I was gearing up for the Hillberry Music Festival last month, I got my flash of vision.  I would make a pair of flouncy, patchwork, harem pants.  They would be billowy, comprised of large, bold squares of fabric, and cinched in at the ankles so they had a lot of flounce.

Dancing pants!  Pants that felt like wearing nothing at all!  Pants that would swoosh and move like a skirt!  Pants that I could layer leggings beneath on the cool southern nights!

With delightful ease and rapidity, my vision came to life.

Miranda, me, and Val right before we all parted ways after five days of camping, dancing, campfires, and laughs.

For the project, I upcycled the geometric shirt along with a pair of worn-out stretchy, red pants (that I got at a clothes swap).  I supplemented these with a pair of remnants--a bright blue and a deep blue--from my stash.  The upcycled shirt was the star fabric.  It just took a little poking around to come up with some coordinating partners.  

The pants have three pockets.  There is a pair of basic, in-seam pockets.  Nothing fancy.  I was particularly proud of the knee pocket though.  The knee pocket is the original breast pocket from the geometric shirt!  I cut the shirt into blocks just-so in order to capture the pocket in one, functional piece.  It cracks me up.  At Hillberry, I kept filling it with candy!  

The shirt breast pocket, turned pants pocket!

As with my color-blocked lounge pants, I used a (heavily) modified version of the Simplicity 7501 pattern to make my harem pants.

I finished the flouncy, patchwork party pants the day before we left for Arkansas.  Just in time!  They were a fabulous addition to my festival.  I mean, where else would I have kept an endless supply of Mike-and-Ikes?!  Seriously though:  They were amazing dancing pants.  Better than I expected.  It felt like wearing nothing at all!  I mean, the legs are so huge that the fabric really only touches me around the waist and ankle.  So comfy and so breezy!  

The legs on these things...huge!  Comfy, cozy, swooshy, and HUGE!

Wearing them into the outhouses was slightly less amazing.  It was certainly doable but necessitated some additional attention on my part so as to not drag them on the floor, say, since they were so voluminous.  The layering with leggings went fabulously when the night temps dropped to the low 40s.  Golly does humidity make the cold so much colder!  (And the heat so much hotter!)  Having lived my entire life in the arid west...I don't know how people do it.

All in all, a slam-dunk of a sewing project.  And the geometric shirt lives on!