Refashioned Trousers: Banana Pants
In January, along with packing up my life in London, I worked on a refashioned trouser project for the Sewcialists blog.
Their theme for February was stripes, and as I needed another pair of my Banana Pants to test out, I opted to make them as a pair of refashioned trousers.
Now, this is the first time I’ve created a pair of refashioned trousers. I’ve done other refashioning projects, but never before have I refashioned trousers.
And it gets better…
I used two old pairs of chinos to do the refashion, along with one small piece of fabric from my stash!
Refashioned Trousers From.. Trousers
These are the two pairs of trousers I used.
One is pale green colour, and the other is a rusty brown colour – though this photo has weird lighting for some reason. They worked really well together, but I did need a third colour, because each leg of the Banana Pants pattern had been spliced up into nine sections.
Banana Pant Origins
The first pair of banana pants came from this collection I created and showed at Brighton Fashion Week.
You can see that the shape was quite curved around the hip / upper thigh area.
I then created this jumpsuit, but spliced up the trouser section. Made in a soft organic cotton, the fabric draped a lot more and the curving hip / upper thigh section isn’t as noticeable.
Refashioned Trousers: Making Changes To The Pattern
After looking at both photos and considering the banana pant pairs I had already made previously, I decided I would even out the curve. Rather than take the curve out of the pattern though, I actually added to the pattern from the waistline down to the hip.
This worked really well for the refashioned trousers as I really wanted to incorporate the original front pockets of the green pair, which were in great condition still.
I didn’t change anything else on the original pattern, as the fit is great for me. I do what to play around with the lower leg section, as I feel that some people might not like how the fabric drags on the inside of each leg when the banana pants are worn – for me, I’m ok with it as I love the style.
Making The Refashioned Trousers
Now, I’m not actually going to write about the process of making the refashioned trousers here. I pieced a lot of fabric together for the refashioned trousers and I covered the process in full over on the Sewcialists’ blog. I’d love for you to pop over there and show some love – click here to do so in a new window! 😉
Future Refashioned Trousers
This pair of refashioned banana pants has been worn a LOT since they were completed in late January. They have swiftly become my favourite make and I wear them constantly. Even to the beach on a wet and windy day!
I have plans to make more refashioned trousers in the future. However with most of my life put into storage, I am currently working from limited supplies.
That said, I hear that Holyhead had many charity shops so I will go bargain hunting / thrifting over the coming weeks to see what else I may find that can be refashioned into some new and fabulous refashioned trousers!
If you love a bit of sustainable fashion, check out this post about the important considerations for sustainable fashion creation and then there is this post explaining why zero waste fashion is so important. After all, our refashioning projects certainly help with the whole sustainability aspect when it comes to fashion right?
How do you feel about my refashioned trousers? Do they make the grade for you or do you think they’re ghastly? What refashioning projects have you tried and seen success / disappointment with? Let me know in the comments below!
Refashioning clothes becoming trendy.
I’m delighted we are considering the immense dollars wasted on clothing being thrown away.
But we only have to look back approx. 70 years ago when the only option to obtain read made clothing was the catalog! And ability to purchase was so limited by cash to spend on clothing. Wardrobes for women were two or three dresses and several aprons. Men’s were overalls, heavy material jeans, and flannel shirts. I know I have over simplified rather then be completely accurate with my description but only to demonstrate the less abundance of clothing goods. My point, when these few garments were worn out they were cut around holes and stains to make clothing for children, quilts and eventually rags for cleaning.
No I’m not describing the pioneers but only 60 years ago we recycled and refashioned clothing out of necessity! Today that necessity is still there because of throw away filling land space needed for homes, agriculture and health etc. Yes because of over abundance!
Not fashionable but necessity and responsibilities of everyone with the slightest abilities to sew need to learn from our past and reuse, recycle clothing.
I see I only limitations are the quality of our materials used for clothing and education to relearn these skills.