All the men in my family love tracksuit pants, and they are surprisingly expensive to buy, if you buy good quality ones. This winter I decided to make them some, so off to Spotlight, where I bought up all their fabric in “manly” colours (ie, no orange or pink!), and proceeded to make a few pairs. I construct mine a little differently from the pattern instructions – I don’t sew up each leg and then put one inside the other to sew the crotch line – instead I sew the inside leg seams, and then the crotch seam (a la Stylearc’s tutorial (see http://www.stylearc.com.au/stylearc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=58) This allows me to sew a line of stitches around the crotch making it a stronger seam. I do all my trousers this way now – but care needs to be taken with the side seams, I have made a very strange pair of trousers by not paying attention, and it is easy to finish up with a skirt!

I use KwikSew 3663. I have made probably 150 (er that would be 15!) pairs of these pants and they are easy to make and comfortable to wear. I have made them out of cool cotton for summer and thick fleecy fabric for winter.

For the winter pants I use a lighter weight fabric for the pockets. I thought the thick fabric would be too thick when there were four layers, so have been burrowing in the stash for suitable fabric. Sometimes this means something dull, like plain black cotton/lycra blend, but I have had some fun with some of the other pants – these have some striped fabric left over from a dress I refashioned.

Tom wanted his pockets to be “mad” so I found this chevron striped (is that a tautology?) fabric that contrasted nicely with the colour of the fleece.

These pants are significant because Tom’s girlfriend Bridgette made most of them. She used the overlocker for the first time, and all I did was insert the pockets.She now has her own sewing machine (no overlocker – yet!) and has been given all the sewing accoutrements one needs when beginning as a sewist.  I think she did a great job!

Pattern KwikSew 3663

Fabric: Spotlight
Time taken: 45 minutes