As I mentioned yesterday, my first pair of Thai fisherman pants was kind of nice but not really what I had expected. When I was "researching" the look, I mostly liked examples which were a bit wider (at the top of this Pinterest board of mine, you can see some).
So, I tried again this time using this tutorial from salty*mom. This pattern has piecing in the legs and the downloadable pattern pieces are for the pointy and curved pieces which form the crotch curve and inner leg pieces. All other pattern pieces are just rectangles.
This time, I made the top piece from a double layer of fabric and I attached the ties well below the middle of its height at center back. This is because I think it looks nicer if, when folded over, the top of the top panel covers the seam which attaches it to the bottom panels.
I hemmed at calf length because I thought that looked better with this width (I had cut these long enough for full length). They're a bit odd, but for casual summer wear, they're quite nice.
Thank you for the nice comments on my previous post! Now that someone has brought it up, it would make a lot of sense that the combination of knitted and woven fabric is a reason why not many other people have made things like that dress. But take it from me: if you can make a simple t-shirt, you can certainly make a dress like that!
Now, on to the next thing. I kind of announced I would put two items in one post, but now I think I will save the second one for tomorrow.
A few weeks ago, while I was still working hard on all the end-of-year stuff that comes with teaching, I decided I wanted a simple, fun sewing project. Something kind of relaxing. And for some reason, I remembered Thai fisherman pants (I know I always insist on using the word trousers for trousers, not "pants" but in this case the idiom seems pretty much fixed on pants).
I spent some time looking on Pinterest for inspiration pictures and pattern suggestions and I found a lot.
So, one Saturday morning, I used this very simple sketch as a guide and cut into some black linen from my stash.
I went with a single layer top panel with flat-felled seams and a turn-over hem.
The end result wasn't bad but didn't quite look like these things do in most pictures.
At some point during sewing, I even wondered they might be too tight around the thighs, but they're not.
In fact, this strange shape actually allows a lot of room for movement.
You've got the completely flat shape of a huge pair of trousers (without shaping on the crotch seam, that is why they are flat) which is wrapped around the wearers body and tied with ties attached to the center back of the top panel. After tying, you fold over the top half of the top panel, covering the ties.
There are a few different options to construct the legs and I think this is one of the simplest. I made these pretty much the way the pattern tells you to (although I may have forgotten to add seam allowance on some straight seam somewhere). Based on the result, I wouldn't recommend doing that if you wear more than, about, a Burdastyle size 38. If you do, add some width and height and go from there, or use one of the many other tutorials floating around on the internet.
The beauty of this style should be that it is truly "free-size" and this version isn't really. It still makes for a nice pair of summer trousers for me though.
Tomorrow I will show you my version of one of those other tutorials.