Sassypants!

My friend Joey and I have a running joke about the word "sassypants". Its origin was an incident involving homophobia and death threats and attempted lawsuits and other decidedly unfunny things, but it's one of those "had to be there" situations where, once you're far enough removed, you can look back and laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Anyway, he gave me these khaki pants. They were actually part of the official dress code at the workplace where all the above happened. (All those references to the friend that gave me a huge pile of old clothes? Yeah, that'd be Joey.) They were in great condition, but he's kind of a wispy boy and I'm a big strapping gal. So how to make them fit? Combine them with that pair of olive-gray even-more-wispy boy pants I salvaged from the dumpster, of course.

First order of business was to get rid of the pocket flaps. What purpose do those things serve, anyway? They never lie flat and only add volume to your butt. I replaced the pockets entirely with the pockets from the other pants - a little bigger, a little more casual, and a vast improvement.

Next I added a strip of the olive pants fabric down the outside of each leg. Sewing geeks might wonder why I don't have two flat-felled seams there (and the vast majority of everyone else couldn't care less, but it's eating at me). I'd have liked that, but it would have meant ripping out the flat-felled inseam and then re-sewing it differently. So I settled for one and just used a plain seam to close up the legs. The length of the olive strips (both cut from just half of one pant leg - plenty left over for future projects!) dictated the point where I'd cut the khaki off - perfect capri length, my favorite.

There was a spot on the pocket where I'd removed the original label, so I added my own. Pretty sassy.

P.S. Hi to the reader with the template like mine (and kitty too)!