#ttutorials

Part Two

Step One- Pants and the easy way out

It is totally possible to draft these pants entirely on your own, but I don’t really suggest it. It will be way easier to modify a pattern. I used this free pattern from Mood. I modified both the leg pieces by widening them starting just below about where they would sit on the thigh.

Sew up the pants according to the pattern directions. Take in the waistband so that it sits high and fairly tight on your natural waist.

Insert some elastic into the cuff of the pants to help them tuck into the boots. *Optional: add elastic stirrups to help keep your pants tucked in by attaching either end of a piece of elastic long enough to go around your foot from where the cuffs of your pants are to either side seam of the pants at the cuff.*

Step Two- The Buttcape Thing

To draft the butt cape part, you’re going to need these measurements (mine are in parentheses)-

Waist (25 inches)

Hip (36 inches)

Waist to hip length(7 inches)

Waist to mid thigh length (18 inches)

Waist to mid calf length (28 inches)

Next decide how much of an opening you want in the front. To get this I measured from the center of one thigh to the center of the other. I got 7 inches.

Draw a horizontal line that is the length of your waist measurement minus your front split and divided by two. For me this was (25-7)/2 or 9 inches.

Draw a vertical line on one side of the first line that is your waist to calf measurement to get the total length.

Measure your waist to hip distance down the vertical line and draw another horizontal line there that is your hip measurement minus your front split and divided by two. For me this was (36-7)/2 or 14.5 inches.

Connect your waist and hip lines with a curve. Draw a vertical line from the hip line all the way down to your total length. Connect this vertical line to the first one all the way across the bottom.

Measure about 2-3 inches in from the back vertical line along the bottom horizontal line. Connect this point to the back vertical line at where your waist to thigh measurement would be.Add seam allowance to the back seam only.

I just drew my pattern directly onto my fabric.

 Cut four, interface one pair.

Sew each pair of butt cape pieces together along the back seam up to the tip of the triangle. Check the fit of the butt cape to make sure the curve of the seam isn’t too much. Mine was, so I had to make it less severe.

Press the seams and line up the two butt capes wrong sides together. Make sure the seams themselves line up nicely. Pick which side you want on the outside. Sew the two pieces together down the center back seam and right along all of the edges, trimming the edges to be even where necessary.

Sew bias tape around all edges except for the top. Cut 2 small rectangles of grey fabric and turn the edges in to finish them, sew one of these over the join in the triangle cut on each side.

Create a waistband out of a piece of the grey fabric by cutting a piece 5 inches wide and a couple inches longer than your waist measurement. Fold the piece in half and iron it flat. Turn in each of the long edges by half an inch to finish them. Sew it onto the butt cape piece by lining up the fold in the middle of the waist band with the top of the butt cape piece. Use the waistband to encase the edges. 

Try on the butt cape with the pants to decide where you will place the snaps to close it. Sew on the snaps. Sew on the decorative buttons on the waistband.

Iron two long strips of bias tape flat and sew each of them into a tube with a very small seam allowance. Iron the tube flat with the seam allowance centered down the middle. Hem the top of each tube and cut its total length down to a few inches shorter than your waist to mid thigh length. Top stitch a tube down each side of the front opening on the butt cape.

Cut out four small squares. Sew them together along all edges in sets of two, leaving enough space to turn them inside out. Turn the squares, iron them and close up the opening. Top stitch one of them onto the ends of  each tube with one point facing up. Add a button to the center of each square.

That should be it for the bottom half of the costume! Hopefully, it looks something like this all put together!