Have you ever refashioned a piece of clothing that you have previously loved and worn for a really long time?
What could make Colorblocked Hudson Pants even more fun? Make them out of velour!
Velour Colorblocked Hudson Pants
In truth, I’ve had this blue velour since before I was married. Has it been in my stash that long? No, it’s been in my schlump about the house wardrobe in the form of really ghastly lounge pants. I didn’t bother to take a before picture on this one. Basically, the pants were too long (and permanently dirty on the bottom because of it), too wide, with a lowered back and no elastic in the drawstring waist, so they were continually falling off me.
with my swatch book, showing my blues
Why did I keep these said pants around for so long? Because this velour feels amazing, and it’s in one of my blues–it runs that fine line of being “baby” blue without getting too cool for my coloring.
I also kept these pants around because I love the cool striped ribbing on the waistband, too. And you have to think that any fabric that’s lasted a decade of being worn on a very regular basis is worth the time it takes to refashion.
So out came my embroidery scissors and I got to work. I’ll note that I usually prefer to use embroidery scissors over a seam ripper. For one, there’s always around my neck on a lanyard so I can clip threads when I sew. Also, the small points fit under stitches and allow you to pull out the stitches vs. ripping them. I usually end up cutting fabric with my stitches when I use a seam ripper. Since I would need to cut pattern pieces out of the pants and didn’t have a ton of extra yardage to work with, I went the safer route with the embroidery scissors.
Unpicking ended up being a long affair. If you follow me on Instagram, there were several shots of little scraggly mountains of thread. The original pants were constructed with a ton of coverstitching–some kind of odious, yet very very strong stitch with 5 separate threads. It took a long time to get anywhere with deconstruction. I watched a great deal of British TV to numb the boredom. After a couple of hours, I finally got to the crotch seams, and I gave up, deciding to see if I could just cut out my pieces without having to pick apart a coverstitched crotch (I could! The peasants rejoice!).
I was able to cut out the front pieces without problem, but the back I was a little shy on width at the hip. It decided to forge ahead and accept whatever happened. If I ended up with wearable pants, great. If not, I didn’t pay anything for the fabric because I literally wore the original pants into the ground.
When I folded my pieces together for cutting, I folded them right sides together, not realizing that that would reverse the colorblocking. Oops. It’s a design feature! *Wink.*
from the right side, showing the loops portion of the flatlocking
The contrast fabric is an ivory knit with a burnout houndstooth pattern. I bought it as a coordinate for another project a couple of years ago and had just enough left over for this project. The textured burnout matches well with the velour, and the two fabrics happen to be the same weight.
I chose to flatlock the seams, because I noticed with the first pair of Colorblocked Hudson Pants, the seam kind of rubbed against my knee funny on the wrong side. I chose to keep the loop side of the stitch on the right side, and the ladder stitches on the wrong side. The seam is completely smooth on the inside, which is nice and does not irritate my knees.
I kept the original waistband which was quite a bit smaller than the Hudson Pants pattern piece. I knew that the waistband fit me just fine, and because it’s made out of rib knit and not a firmer, less stretchy sweatshirt knit per the pattern, I forged ahead, knowing that it was going to fit onto the pants just fine.
As it turns out, I didn’t need the extra width in the back hip that I cheated out. Whether by fabric or the pattern being too big in the first place, I had more than enough fabric to fit my hips.
I’m loving these pants, and that I was able to salvage a beloved piece of clothing. The waistband with the added elastic no longer falls off of me, and the Hudson Pants’ slimmer profile is more contemporary and honestly just fits my shape better than big balloony flares. I will call it a successful refashion!
My updated review is here at Patternreview and the original review at Indie Sew.
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