I bought these camel sweater pants (Liz Claiborne brand) at a thrift store for $3.99. I added some Adidas accents (see my inspo pics below) to the legs and also the hip. You can also do this to sweatpants, trackpants and sweaterpants to add sporty accents, floral or abstract accents to upcycled clothing.
I’ll break down how did it: I used black single fold bias tape (available at your local fabric store – please shop your local stores first!) You’ll need about a yard and a half (enough to go 3 times around the leg of your pants plus a bit extra for finishing it off.) I also used Steam A Seam (again, your LFS will have this) to attach the stripes before stitching, to hold them in place.
I stitched close to each side of the black tape, crossing over where I folded the bias tape at the inner leg seam to connect the tape. Bias tape won’t ravel – you can overlap the ends, press to secure with the Steam A seam and stitch over. I crossed over to the other side at this join and stitched close to the other edge. I did this on all three stripes, plus added three accent short ones on the opposite hip, just for fun.
I have to tighten the back waistband elastic on these pants (they are a little big on me), but they are cozy, easy and chic!
I have it on with a purchased funnelneck. For a funnelneck top, I recommend the Christine Jonson Funnelneck top (lengthen the sleeves to full length from 3/4), or you can use the Nikko mock turtleneck from True/Bias. Both are super easy to sew (the CJP one has only TWO pattern pieces – a front/back and a sleeve!)
The coat is a faux leather trench from the 1990s from my mom’s closet along with the bag – my mom has fabulous fashion sense (but she lives in a rural area on the Great Lakes and has no real need of a faux leather trench these days!) I’ve gotten a bunch of things from her closet recently, all of which are are on trend – oversized blazers, the coat and bag.
It’s about a week on from the 2024 election and the world feels like it’s teetering on edge of Germany 1933. So I’m a little off kilter, and I’ve seen many others say the same thing. What we do know is our clothing is about to be a lot more expensive – across the board 20% tariffs and from China, 60%, and as such, the clothing we buy thrifted (or sewn from stash or stock that’s already purchased and here), will be very expensive. In a way, it will slow down the treadmill of fast fashion for sure.
We do not even have a single machine that can knit a sweater for manufacturing in the USA. So even retailers that use American grown cotton, must send that over to China for knitting and finishing before importing it. And even if they’re using suppliers in Vietnam or Cambodia, it will soon be much more expensive to do both of these (send the cotton over, and then bring it back in the form of a sweater.)
Thrifting offers alternatives to this, and you can do fun stuff like what I did! And for those that say “it won’t happen” – 20% tariffs appeared within 1 month of the last Republican administration taking office. So, yes, it will. It will at least be 20% if not more. Save your money, buy from thrift and secondhand (online and in person) stores. We already have all the clothing we need here in the USA. Be conscious and upcycle the trends you want.
More inpsiration for thrifted trackpants, sweatpants and sweaterpants came with a short trip to a local large sporting goods store. In this store, I saw a lot of sweatpants and trackpants and these two stood out as great examples of creative ways to embellish trackpants, sweatpants or sweaterpants.
In the left example, you’ll see screen or fabric paint printing, at the top, similar bias tape striping as the technique above (with diagonal joins at the sideseams). This would be easy to do with the following:
Cricut/home vinyl cutter and heat press for graphics, a stencil and fabric paint for the abstract and floral graphics, bias tape for the black accents. On the right, there are curved panels applique’d on the pants, and this would be pretty easy to do – a print knit fabric (that does not ravel) secured with Steam a Seam and then stitched close to the raw edge would work fine for this application. The stripes curved around the back of the pants as well. The easiest way to apply all of this is to apply when the pants are not sewn, but if you are upcycling, you can simply end the panels at each sideaseam. The lower leg pattern is just a panel at the bottom of each leg, sewn on before the ankle cuffs are applied. You can applique this onto your pantlegs when they are not sewn and flat, and then sew the pants as instructed after you apply the panels. I do recommend a separate cuff for the hems if you do this method (as the pant will be thicker where the applique fabric is applied.)
There are several sweatpant sewing patterns – including a couple of free ones: Dash sweatpants from Petite Stichery (Men/women/kids) is free! Simplicity/McCalls has this unisex one: S9828 that also comes with cargo pants, a super fun anorak pullover. https://simplicity.com/simplicity/s9828. If you want open ankles, just omit the cuffs on any of these pants.
