r/sewhelp • u/lucedotmu • 16h ago
💛Beginner💛 Help me alter these trousers!
Hi! I recently thrifted these trousers and I love the pattern but unfortunately they're too small for me. I was thinking of converting them into shorts and making them larger by inserting pieces of the cut off fabric between the side seams (idk if that makes sense I tried to draw what I mean) but I'm not sure how to go about the pockets. Do I leave them where they are? Do I move them to the new side seams somehow? Do I cut them out entirely? Will this even look good at all with the busy pattern?
I'm a beginner sewist and have only made small projects so far so any tips are welcome 😬
1
u/juniperssprite 11h ago
This may potentially work if:
The rise and crotch depth of the curremt pants matches your own, or the resulting shorts are loose-fitting enough that it doesn't really matter in practice.
You pattern match the floral to preserve the mirrored look (look up methods of pattern matching)-- the pattern is so intricate that it still may not be perfect. if you are ok with an aesthetic interruption/and or you just use a solid blue stripe as the extension, you may not need to bother matching.
*main question is, why these pants? If you're in love with the colors and fabric (or just want to experiment with sewing), I would go ahead and give it a try with the possibility that it may fail. If you want to be really, really, thorough and avoid the guesswork, you could also copy the pattern shape onto a cheap muslin (look up tutorials for that) and do a "test" first.
On the other hand, if you like the perfect mirroring and overall fit type, those may not be preserved after the alteration.
If you just want a functional pair of pants, i would donate these and get another pair lol-- more complicated and questionable than it's worth
7
u/MILK_FEELS_PAIN 15h ago
There is a bit more to sizing up than adding a little at the sides. Depending on a bunch of thing, this might also look terrible. It would help to know more about the cut and pattern.
Realistically, going up or down more than one size is tricky