Sisterhood of the Velvety Pants

Clothing makeover goddess Marisa Lynch and I had another crafty play date and I finally decided to reinvent my circa 1995 velvet striped pants I've had since, well, before anyone I knew had a cell phone. I've had so much trouble letting go of them because I love the way they feel- the fabric is luxurious and awesome and really amazingly soft and silky.  They are Miss Sixty brand, which, we all know makes timeless, yet time travel-able basics.  Yet I never wear them because they are just TOO MUCH going on.  If they were a circus tent I would move into that tent...  Anyway, not quite ready to toss this awesome material just yet. A chair would also look great upholstered in this fabric, but, there isn't enough for that so we put our reinvention caps on and... 

BEFORE (notice the Christmas tree in the background, It was March friends.  Yes, I am that lady.)

…and the amazing up close and personal shot of the velvety material.

VELVET!!!!!!

Here’s what we decided to do with them. (Marisa wrote this part)

In order to accommodate the both of us, we decided to make matching projects, however with the leftovers, we can totally start a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants story, passing back top portion as shorts.

TRIM!!

We trimmed one portion of the pants right at the cuff…

ONE DOWN…

…and then matched the other side, measuring and cutting off the same amount.

SHORTENING THOSE PANTS!

We’re making matching clutches!  To give the bag a little more character, we trimmed a second piece of pant material, took out the seam, and then folded up the edges, to form triangles to go on top of the rectangular section.

TWO PANT LEGS!

We pinned our triangles, and then took out the seam at the top of the first rectangle.

SEAM REMOVIN’ TIME!

We turned the rectangular material inside out and then put and pinned the triangle in-between the material, right sides touching each other.

STITCHING DOWN!

We stitched this top section with the triangle edging, and the right side of the bag, leaving the left side open.

SEW DOWN!

We needed zippers to secure one of the sides and because we only had 9″ ones, we opted to leave the zipper on the left side instead of the top of the bag.  (…just in case any of you were wondering why we didn’t put the zipper up top.)

IT’S ZIPPER TIME!!

We sewed the zipper in…

ZIPPY SEWING

…and was almost complete!

ZIP’S IN AND ALMOST READY TO WEAR!

Now, we had some fab tassels to work with (I scored a bag of 10 for a buck!) so we affixed two to the bottom of the triangle and then added one to the zipper on the left using a jump ring.

TASSELS!!

Once we added our flair, the clutch was complete!

Yes, that black tank is totally legit.  It was 80 degrees today and I spent a good chunk of time outside soaking in the rays and Vitamin D!!  (Yay for a day without having to take my supplement!)  The UPS dude totally caught me laying on the steps and opted to walk around me to drop off packages, which I totally appreciated.

MOST COMFORTABLE SPOT OF THE DAY!

New clutch, check.  New shorts ready to start shooting Sisterhood of the Pants 3: Pants Meet Scissors in, check.  That post will come soon, after our contracts have been negotiated.

(End of Marisa's Post)

Now for the Shortz! (Pass the pants to Sonya)

I hemmed the now shorts, ripping the center leg seam so the fabric would fold up without bunching up the part it folded up to.  Turned under the seam 1/4 inch.  Didn't want to make them Daisy Dukes and I certainly didn't want the pockets sticking out from below the hem of the shorts.  That's a whole other thing.

Still get the awesome pattern without it being a raver's #1 dream vision.  I left tassles off and opted for the tassle-y bangles.  

My four year old took this.  Hello down there!