Simplicity 4192, Wrap Pants

posted in: Sewing | 7

I’m going on a cruise in a few days (YAY!!!)  and I had so much sewing planned, but sadly, most of it will never come to fruition, or at least not in time.  But these pants did and I’m pretty much in love.   I love how versatile they are. They can be dressed up or down, and even serve as a swimsuit cover.  Most of all, they were very easy and quick to sew.

This is the envelope front from Simplicity.

I scouted this pattern a couple of weeks ago but was waiting for Simplicity to go on sale at Joann because I refuse to pay full price for patterns, there is no need at all to pay full price for the big four. But I digress.  The pants are very simple in construction, they are made up of 3 pattern pieces, one of which is just the binding/tie combination.  I shortened the crotch by half an inch at the front and half an inch at the back, and then shortened the length below the crotch by three inches.  The waist of the pants sits just about at my waist, and the pattern says they are supposed to be worn one inch below the waist. I actually prefer to wear my pants just above the hips so in the future, if I was to make these pants again, I would shorten the crotch length even more.  That said, they are comfortable as they are.  I chose a very light and airy fabric, it’s almost see through, but for this style of pants you really need that as bulk just won’t do.

While the construction of these pants is very easy, I have to that say I would have hated hemming the pants without the aid of a narrow hem foot.  There’s a lot of hem, and narrow hemming by hand is dreadful.  I’m so very thankful for that nifty little presser foot.  I also ignored Simplicity’s instructions for binding the waist edge of the pants, which also serves as the ties.  They have you do everything the hard way, which I suppose is just a way of explaining the process to people who don’t have tools to make the process easier.  Instead, I made two single-fold binding tapes from the appropriate pattern pieces using a bias binding maker, then I used an adjustable binding foot to sew the tape and bind the waist of the trousers all at once. Does that make sense?  With those two time saving devices, the trousers took me about 2 hours of actual working time from the beginning of cutting the fabric until they were finished.

With just flip flops it would be a great swimsuit cover.

 There’s a good description with pictures here on how to tie wrap pants.
  

7 Responses

  1. Anonymous

    I read your review on sewingpatternreview.com and jumped over here for more details and photos. Great job, really nice fabric choice and fit. Thanks for the construction tips.

  2. Audrey Ellis

    I am actually looking to Purchase this pattern – so you sell patterns? Or so you know where I can get it?
    Thanks you. Audrey

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