Thursday, February 7, 2008

Zuma Wrap Pants by:Camelotcats

Wrap pants:Measure the person who will be getting the pants at their waist, their hip, and their thigh. Take a pattern for a pair of pants that fit the recipient and trace the inside crotch seam and inner-leg seam to the ankle hem.At the waist, go out 1/2 the waist measurement minus 1 inch for every 10 inches the waist is after the first 10 inches. (For example, if the waist is 22", go out 10" from the center seam, if the waist is 32", go out 14", etc.) You can round this number up OR down as desired (usually the smaller sizes I round up, the bigger, down). Depending on the fullness desired for the pants, you can either go straight down from the point at the waist or you can taper or curve in at any point to change the shape of the wrap. This is a very free-form thing, but never go below 1/4 the thigh measurement plus 2-3" (or 1/4 hip plus 2-3" above the crotch point), or the sides of your leg won't be covered. The more coverage you make on the sides of the pants, the more your leg will be covered on a regular basis, otherwise when you walk, the pants will flap open and flash your leg. I tend to make less coverage adn let my legs come out, but then again, I only have one pair of these that I made as a swimsuit cover-up.If you want the little wrap in the front like the zuma pants have, make the back pant pieces 1/2 the waist plus about 4 or 5 inches. At the hip, severely curve inwards (Towards the inner leg seam) to about 1/4 the hips plus 3 or 4 inches for overlap, then curve back out at the lower thighs/knees like the pants pattern does for the bell on the bottom. The front pieces (which wrap underneath) don't need to be fancy. Also, if there is too much fabric at the tushie (since the fabric will nearly all the way back to the center in the back), you can make the front pieces 1/2 waist minus 2 or 3 inches so the fabric ends at the side of the tush instead of going all the way into the middle underneath. If you want to wrap either way, though, make the front pieces like the back but without the overlap.The actualy pattern of the Zuma pants looks like they use the severe swoop from the waist to the hips to avoid bulk at the tushie. I had never seen this before until I looked at the pattern, but it is a very neat idea. I think it could be imitated with a little trial and error without needing a whole different pattern.At the bottom hem, round off from the outseam to the hemline so there's not a sharp corner.Cut out 2 fronts and 2 backs, remembering that the front will wrap around and tie in the back and the back will wrap around and tie in the front...Sew the pants together at the crotch and inseams just like you would for a regular pair of pants.Using double fold bias, bind the outseam down over the hem and up the other outseam (Does this make sense?). This will finish your raw edges. If you want to, you could also turn under all of these raw edges. OR you could make them reversible and cut 4 fronts and 4 backs and sew them together with right sides and trun inside out before attaching the waist.Now, for your waist, you can do one of three things (Actually you can do more, but these are the basics):1. Bind the tops with the bias leaving long tails on either side of the pants to tie around the waist. 2. using matching or contrasting fabric, make two long strips. attach the strips to the waist leaving long tails on either side. (there are many ways to do this, I'm sure your way is better than mine as mine involves a lot of hand top-stitching).An option with each of the above methods for a cleaner back:On the front part of the wrap pants, measure the ties that will go around to the back. make the entire waistband with the extra tails the waist measurement plus 4-6 inches (for larger waists, you may want to make it +8"). clean finish the ends of the tails and attach either buttons, snaps, or velcro to go under the back of the pants, instead of another tie.3. You can make the tops of the pants a little longer and thinner with the top being closer to the waist plus a few inches, similar to the Zuma pants, then either bind the top or put on a waist band, leaving no extra for tails. Then attach buttons, snaps, or velcro to the ends, so when you overlap the extra length you can attach them together. (this method does involve some sort of curving out below the waist and above the crotch to avoid bunching up at the center)

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