Untwisting my knickers

I was dressing for a skit I was doing last Sunday, an announcement for a charity auction I am co-chairing. It's a Roaring 20s theme, and I was supposed to be a newsboy selling papers. "Extra! Extra! Our auction is only 5 weeks away!" etc, etc.

I have a pair of cheater knickers I made some time ago, which I couldn't find. And even if I had found them, there's a good chance they wouldn't fit anymore, as the little calories that live in your closet and shrink your clothing have been hard at work on my wardrobe this year. I ended up pulling the legs of my pants up inside, doubled up, and tying them off just below the knees with ribbons, which worked fine for that day, but that won't do for events.

This evening, I picked up a pair of slacks at the thrift store. They're a pair of Dockers that were altered for a woman who was ~5' tall, apparently. Knickers, ho!

First, I cut them off at just below my knees:



Then, I cut the hemmed portion off the remainder of the legs, cut out one of the seams and sized them to my legs just above the calves, with a seam allowance of 1/4" on either end:



Sewed down the edges of these pieces, then pinned them to the pants legs. There's now a bit of a gather:



Sewed the cuffs on and topstitched down the seam, and for fasteners I picked out a couple of antiqued silver buttons and made two loops with elastic cord:



And here you have it:



This took me about 30 minutes altogether, including the time it took to start my daughter's bedtime shower. Easy peasy!


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