DIY Britches

Thanks to the pattern I featured in my previous blogs (6/27/19 and 7/9/18) my muscle dudes have lots of work shirts.  Another issue is pants.  Ken fashions with Velcro closures won't close around the waists of many of my non-Ken dolls.  My Star Trek guys can't wear anything but shorts because long pants won't go on over the molded-on boots.  T-shirt fabric isn't stretchy enough to go over the boots.  It's a dilemma, but I found a lazybones DIY for sweat pants.

I had knee socks that had worn out, in the feet only, as they do.  I was looking for ways to repurpose them into doll clothes.  Ugly Christmas sweaters are pretty common projects, but these socks are mostly zombie themed.  I have made tube dresses in the past, for my 18 inch Pocahontas dolls, but they've since reverted to just wearing their Disney-issued clothes year-round.

I thought "What if I cut a tube dress up the middle most of the way?  Would that make workable pants?"  So I tried it and guess what!  It worked!

I didn't think to take pictures as I worked, so Four and one of my still-intact knee socks volunteered to help me out.  The top of the sock will become the waistband, so position the doll accordingly and then cut straight across at ankle length. 

Put the doll directly on (or into) the sock to find where the crotch should be.  Cut from there to the bottom, creating an inseam.  Then flip them inside out and start sewing!  

My seams don't look purty, any more than the ones on my work shirts, but no one will see them unless man-spreading occurs. I did go through a few trial socks before getting it right, but the results were better than I'd hoped.  Turns out socks are stretchy enough to go over those Star Trek boots! 

Here's a variety of my dudes (and Nancy) modeling the sweats! I have a good variety of body molds so the fit varies.  The Boy told me some of these have ridiculously high waists, but that's easy enough to fix.  You can cover them with a shirt....

.... or turn down the top so it looks like a thicker waist band.

                                                                                                                                                                         

 The real test for doll pants, of course, is the Half-Moon. Most were good, and all but two of the others were fixed simply by turning up the folded down waist.

Hank and Ben switched pants with other guys to see if this was a pants problem or a doll problem.  It's the doll.  Hank and Ben will need to either wear long shirts or sit in the back row.  If they're in these britches, anyway. 

I can now do raggedy work shirts and raggedy sweat pants.  Pike and Sulu can wear something besides shorts, which they'll be glad for with winter coming.  And I didn't have to toss my worn-out socks!  At least, not the whole sock.