Rapunzel Pants

Another iteration on my very colorful Rapunzel inspired outfit: breeches! "Breeches", "Slops", or "venetians" were a simple style of pant worn by late Tudor and Elizabethan men. They were usually gathered at the waist and legs and mid-calf to just above the knee in length. These pants are significantly more comfortable to wear than the very fun (and impractical) paned trunkhose I had previously made to go with this outfit. So in 2025, the night before a 24hr sewing competition I was to compete in, I whipped together a new pair of pants.  

The Process:

I had previously copied the pattern for these from my partner's breeches to lend to a friend and conventiently included the instructions right on the pattern. My instructions made a lot of assumptions and skipped a lot of details, so with a little more specificity, they read:

1. Cut 2x front pieces and 2x lining (I did not line these pants)

2. Cut 2x back pieces and 2x lining 

3. Cut the waist and leg bands (rectangles that are your waist measurement +2" and 2-4" wide and your calf measurement +1" and 2-4" wide)

4. Match each front to one back and sew both the long sides and the short sides together, making two separate legs

5. Match the U for the crotch seam (I wrote butt seam hehe) and sew together leaving 6-8" open at the front for the fly

6. [Optional in my case] Repeat these steps for the lining 

7. Baste the lining into the exterior, wrong sides together, at the waist and leg openings

8. Gather the waist and legs

9. Sew the gathered waist to the waist band, fold it over and finish the inside

10. Sew the gathered legs to the leg bands, fold them over and finish the inside

11. Add buttons and button holes (or hooks and eyes) to the fly

I squeezed these pants out of the remaining pink wool I had used for my Rapunzel jerkin. I ended up narrowing the pattern slightly to make it fit. I also added pockets to the side seams because who doesn't love pockets. 

And as you can imagine, at 9pm the night before an event, I did a terrible job of documenting this process. But the pants were complete for the event! 

The Result:

No context, only the silliest photoshoot I did in this outfit.