Dress pants are thankless and a pain in the crotch to make! Fly zipper and opening, belt rings, pleats, fit, among other challenges, and you can’t even do anything with them without being accused of being “unprofessional”, too casual or “inappropriate” for dress code somehow. Put a stripe on them, even, and you’d be thought of as wearing athletic pants! So why would anyone who sew want to make them unless you can’t get stuff to fit you?

Well, I’ve got a few other reasons. One is I hate how freakin’ cold I am in them outside in Canadian winter, which is like 6 months of the year! Two is with my colourful dress shirts being made and about to be made, there isn’t anything out there that goes well with them other than black. The other grey, olive green, brown and such drab stuff just don’t those dress shirts any justice, even if they leave them highlighted to be the only clothing to warrant looking at on me. No, they deserve better, and so do I. I want everything from white pants, to jacquard reds, blues and so on, all with a little punch, too. None of this drab crap!

But I hate making dress pants! I’ve only ever made one pair properly, and I’d like to leave it that way with how much I laboured over them!

Lining them with shirting so as to have two layers, with embroidery of my fashion line name probably didn’t help! But man, they are by far the best pair of pants I have to wear! Smooth on the skin, warm in winter and cool even in summer, but if I sweat, it’s not soaked to the outside layer.

These go with some navy and white tops I have bought which form the University of North Carolina Tar Heels colour scheme which I love so much. They also go well with my bought NS Tartan dress shirt, worn not tucked in for casual Fridays.

For the labour involved, though, this wasn’t worth making again to me. As a result, I have been pondering about creating new pant styles I would be willing to make, but would still be acceptable for work pants, or otherwise. And that’s when I came up with the pajama style dress pants.

• They are sewn like pajama pants straight through the crotch on all seams, not being cut short by a fly zipper opening like with regular dress pants. That’ll make them far harder to rip than dress pants!
• They have an elastic waist band like pajama pants, but 1″ wide elastic to feel like a belt, also set up high like where you’d wear a belt. The wrinkles of the waist band around the elastic can’t be seen because I wear my tunic style dress shirts over them. Pleats on pants give a little wiggle room, but I have plenty enough in mine. Pleats also nicely fold the fabric over so there isn’t an ugly wrinkle all around your waist. Well, that’s only if you tuck in your shirt and show it. I cover it with my style, and women who don’t tuck in their top can wear these pants just as well.
• There are no belt rings needed with the elastic waist band. Talk about time saved! You also wouldn’t need as many belts as you might if you wore one most days. Mind you, if you need a belt due to your belly, then this is not the pant style for you.
  

  Pant Comparisons, muslin vs store bought (click to enlarge)

• There are no pleats to leave a smoother front side than those supposedly “sharp” dress pants do! Look at the muslin picture at right where I’ve highlighted this. I might give these pants a casual name due to what they resemble, but I look sharper in them than in dress pants!
• There are side pockets done just like with dress pants.
• Lining these pants at the bottom saves a seam to be sewn in and exposing an extra visible seam. Forget blind hems, too! That’ll also make these things warmer and smoother to wear than regular dress pants.
• There are no fly zippers so none can be broken, plus time save putting them in. As for function of fly zippers, well, let’s put it this way. I bet I can get in and out of these pants, as well as get anything in and out of these pants, faster than you can with yours that have fly zipper and belt! Women included in this bet! lol

So what I have on my hands are fast and easy to make pants, which can be lined, and made just as easily for pajamas as well as work settings! I not only have sharper looking pants with fewer folds than other men, I’ll have the sharpest looking pajama pant style, too! Also note that these pants will work just as well for women. I would argue they’ll work even better for women because women have more work options with tops that don’t have to be tucked into pants like men with their dress shirts. I’ll tell you one thing. I’m not in a position to start any fashion and clothing trends, but if I were, there’d be no reason why this wouldn’t be a hit!

Now, time to go pick some awesome fabrics from which to make some seriously ravishing pants to go with more dress shirts! Whether white pants, jacquards in any number of colours like crimson, black, navy, or toile and bolder prints, multiple colours, game on, man! Some I’ll have to hold back on for work, though really subtle jacquard blacks could still work, maybe ultra-suede I just got my hands on, etc. But the rest, for less conservative settings, let the fun begin!

Please click here to see other garments I’ve made and fashion related articles I’ve written.