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By Esi Hutchinson
Our featured pattern this month is 250 Hollywood Pants, which includes three styles of pants: trousers, knickers, and shorts. This pattern exemplifies the start of the acceptance of women wearing pants for practical, casual, and fashion purposes during the 1920-30's. And right now is a great time to make a pair of wool pants for the coming cool weather, or to whip up a pair of shorts for these lingering hot summer days!
"Knickerbockers", shortened to "knickers" in our pattern, were the summer sportswear attire mainly worn by men in the 1920s and 1930s. These short pants were traditionally baggy, buckled, and sinched below the knee.
Over time, knickerbockers evolved from being just men's trousers to a style of breeches worn by both men and women. They were often paired with knee-high socks, creating a distinctive look that was both practical and stylish. Knickerbockers were especially popular for outdoor activities like golf, cycling, hiking, and gardening as they allowed for ease of movement.
As knickerbockers gained popularity in the fashion world, they also made their mark in the world of sports. Athletes began wearing knickerbockers for comfort and flexibility, leading to being associated with various sports uniforms. Even today, you can see references to the classic knickerbocker style in sports like baseball and football (American football, that is).
I decided to make the knickers from 250 Hollywood Pants into actual long pants for myself. It's difficult for me to buy pants because they never fit me in the right places. These knickers, however, fit me comfortably without any modification, but I felt I was more likely to wear them as pants or shorts rather than as traditional knickers. So, in this blog post, I will show you how I transformed the knickers into pants. I will also show you how to make the pockets larger (because who doesn't want bigger pockets!). For Part 2, go here.
The fabric suggested for the knickers is medium to heavy-weight cotton, wool, linen, and twill. I used a 60" (150cm) wide cotton sanded twill in Monty Tan (weight of 8.5 oz/280 gsm). I would say this is medium weight fabric. I'm a size medium in this pattern and needed 2 yards of this wide fabric to make the knickers into pants. So if you make these knickers into pants, you will likely need 1/2 yard or more of extra fabric, depending on the size you are making and the width of your fabric. I will also point out that we received some beautiful designer lightweight wools last week, and they would also be lovely for this pattern.
Getting Started
First, I needed to recreate the pattern piece A and B, the pants Front and Back.
I used:
I traced out the knickers pieces A, B, C, D, F, G, H, I. Since I was making these knickers into long pants, I did not need pieces J and K (the cuff placket and the cuff). I did not use E, the pocket facings, either because I used a medium-weight fabric that wouldn't make the garment bulky. If you are using a heavy-weight fabric, I would use a light-weight fabric such a broadcloth, poplin, other light-weight cottons, or linen, for the pocket facing E and fly facings C and D.
Transforming the Front and Back
I measured the length of both inseams of the original pieces A and B for the knickers because I know that in a pants pattern, the back leg is usually slightly longer than the front leg. The Back was 3/8 (9.5mm) longer, so when I extended the pattern pieces, I made the Back 3/8 (9.5mm) longer than the Front.
I taped the knickers Back (B) to tracing paper so that I could extend the original lines of the knickers, making them into long pants. I excluded the 1/2" (13mm) extension on the pattern piece that is for the slit of the knickers.
I decided I wanted the pants to be 40" (101.6cm) long with 1-1/2" (3.8cm) hem.
I used the grainline as my straight line and measured from the waist to the hem 40" (101.6cm) and drew my cutting line at the bottom of piece Back B. I also added notches to help match the pants legs together.
I did the same with Front piece A but made it 3/8" (9.5mm) shorter than the Back (i.e. 39-5/8" (100.6cm) long).
I transferred the notches to the Front piece. Then my pants pieces were ready!
That is all I did to change the Front A and Back B pattern pieces to make pants from the knickers. I highly recommend making a muslin to see if you like the fit and make any adjustments you might want before cutting into your fashion fabric.
Enlarging the Pockets
I found that the pocket of the knickers was a bit too narrow for my liking, so I wanted to figure out how to make the pocket wider. These pockets are cut as one piece then folded to make the pocket bag. To enlarge the Pocket F piece to be wider, I traced the pocket piece onto paper, and then I cut it in half using the center foldline.
You don't want the top of the pocket piece to be wider because the pockets are sewn into the waist and get pressed toward the front after you've sewn the pockets on. The width of the top of the pocket might exceed the width of the top of the pant fronts if you made it wider and it would not work or look good.
Instead, pivot the cut-in-half pocket from the top and make it wider toward the bottom. Note that you don't have to cut the pocket in half as I did -- you could just cut from the bottom to nearly the top, creating a pivot point in the pocket. Pay attention to how wide your front pant pieces are so the whole pocket isn't wider than the front pant and therefore interfere with the pant crotch.
Place and tape the pocket pieces on tracing paper and connect the bottom of cut in half pieces together with a curved line. You can make the pockets longer at this point as well. Now your pockets will be wider. I always feel women's pockets are never big enough!
New pocket piece being made. Keep the pocket attached at the top, but open the bottom up so you have more room and a larger pocket.
Once all these changes were made, I was ready to make the final version of the pants. Follow along for Part 2 here!
Patricia O
August 29, 2024
In the UK “knickers” means ladies’ panties so I always do a double take when I see the word used in American English to mean knee-breeches. I would make the long version I think.