Trace-Your-Own Thai Fisherman Pants Pattern

No sewing experience? Want to learn how to make pants without a pattern? No problem! Take your favorite pair of pants and trace your own fisherman pants pattern

I tackled this fisherman pants pattern after moving to rural property and finding that all my clothing wore out at record speed. Rather than sitting at a computer or commuting to work, I was putting up fencing, foraging in thick brush, and trimming goat hooves — and getting tired of constantly mending clothes at night. But tough commercial outdoor wear came with a hefty price tag, and often the frivolous styling didn’t match my needs. Furthermore, the clothing industry in general galls me with the way it exploits sweatshop labor. So, with no knowledge about sewing garments, let alone knowing how to make pants without a pattern, I took up needle and thread and blundered my way into making my own clothing.

Although my methods are informal at best, I’m able to customize and craft clothing that’s comfortable, fits well, and, best of all, stands up to the rigors of my daily life. For readers also looking to take clothing into their own hands, I’m happy to share my philosophy for piecing together successful attire without fancy fabric, sewing experience, or fussy commercial patterns.

My Basic Sewing Philosophy

Starting a new endeavor can be intimidating, especially when it’s something as personal as your own apparel. The backbone of this method is to lessen anxiety, build confidence, and add basic sewing skills to your repertoire. Once you’ve sewn something you can actually wear, the next project won’t seem as big a hurdle. Eventually, you’ll be able to add more technical skills to your burgeoning experience.

Now, anyone who does have sewing experience may find my method borderline heretical. All I can say is this: My goal isn’t to create perfectly tailored haute couture, but to make wearable, easy-to-sew clothing that’s light on the wallet and light on seriousness. Here are some tenets of the philosophy.

Use your favorite clothes as templates.

Rather than those flimsy paper patterns, tracing your own clothes takes out all the guesswork. You already know they fit! Simply add a 3/4-inch seam allowance around your traced lines to make a custom-fit design you can alter and adjust as your creativity dictates.

Upcycle thrifted fabrics.

Bedsheets, unwanted curtains, and funky old tablecloths are inexpensive, fun to play around with, and entirely forgiving in terms of risk. If you end up totally messing up the project (unlikely!), you’ll only have wasted a 50-cent tablecloth rather than expensive store-bought fabric. The pressure is off for achieving success, which might relax you enough to help you succeed in the first place!

Don’t fixate on a certain look.

Modern clothing, with its ever-changing lines and often impractical designs, doesn’t really fit in with my philosophy. Instead, you can make timeless shapes and silhouettes. Full skirts, comfortable pants, and flowing tunics are feel-good clothes that fit all body types. With a bright smile and a disregard for others’ opinions, you can transcend the fickle trends that’ll be obsolete in a week.

Have fun with the process!

Accept that you’re going to make mistakes. You may sew something wrong-side-out. Your seams may not line up perfectly. You may laugh while inspecting your reflection in the mirror (whether in delight or amusement is up to you). You may stab your finger with a needle a few times. You may have unexpected success. You may fall in love with rescuing fabrics and making your own clothing. Embrace it all! Anxiety and perfectionism are your enemies.

Trace-Your-Own Fisherman’s Pants Pattern

These easy, breezy, one-size-fits-all pants are inspired by the traditional fisherman’s trousers of Thailand. These adjustable pants will stay up without buttons, zippers, clasps, or belts. They’re perfect for wearing under a tunic, or for fluctuating waistlines. These instructions won’t produce the true, extremely loose silhouette of the authentic Thai garment, but I prefer a closer fit. Because you’ll be learning how to make pants without a pattern — that is, without a commercial pattern — you’ll need existing pants for a template.

Sewing Supplies

Thrifted fabrics
Hand sewing needle or sewing machine
(Note: You can sew this project by hand using a backstitch.)
Thread
Tailor’s chalk or marker
Tape measure or yardstick
Fabric scissors or dressmaker’s shears
Straight pins

Materials

Pair of non-stretchy sleep pants that fit nicely, to use as a template
Flat bedsheet for soft, breezy pants, or cotton curtain for harder-wearing pants

Fisherman Pants Pattern Sewing Instructions

Trim the hemmed edge off one long side of the bedsheet. (Refer to the diagram at left.) This will be your waist tie. Set aside.
The directions that follow will save you from sewing seams down the outside of each pant leg, but they do require some careful planning and tracing. If this seems too complicated, you can cut two separate front panels and two separate back panels and proceed that way.
Fold in half the sleep pants you’ve chosen to use as a template for this fisherman pants pattern, as neatly as you can, with the seams at the perimeter and the tie in the fold. This should give you the rough shape of the back half of the finished pants. Trace the shape onto the upcycled cloth. Next, reverse the fold of the sleep pants so the tie is on the outside. Line up the straight outer edge with the straight outer edge of your previous tracing, and trace the front half of the leg. Allow an extra 3/4-inch for a seam allowance around the perimeter. Label this leg “left” or “right,” as applicable.
Repeat the process in reverse with the other leg, making sure to label that leg too.
Make adjustments. If the legs on your template are tapered, straighten the lines on your fabric so the leg panels are at least 2 feet wide at the bottom hem (or 1 foot wide, if you’ve cut the front and back separately). Use the yardstick to add 8 inches to the waistline’s vertical measurements on all pieces. This may look a little odd. Refer frequently to the diagram above, at left.
Cut out the panels. If you lined them up correctly, you should be able to cut out the left leg as a single piece and the right leg as a single piece. Bonus points if you managed to cut the bedsheet so one of its finished hems will be the cuffs of the fisherman pants!
Assemble the pieces. First, turn the material wrong-side-out, pin carefully, and sew the inseam on each leg. Be sure not to extend the stitches past the crotch area. Then, turn the fabric right-side-out and pin the pants together at the crotch, lining up the front panels and back panels correctly. I usually begin stitching the seams, right sides of the fabric facing each other, at the point where the four seams meet, and work my way up from there, as this is a lot less intimidating than trying to sew the whole tricky seam in one fell swoop!

Don’t worry if the waistline or cuffs aren’t perfectly even when you’ve finished stitching; you can fix that with a bit of trimming and hemming in Step 7. Check your pinning, and if you’re satisfied, sew a line of straight stitches along all seams, following up with another line of fray-inhibiting zigzag stitches along the raw edge.
Now, you’ve got a ridiculous pair of pants that probably fit fine until the waist, which is encircling the bottom of your ribs. This is to be expected, because you’ve been mastering how to make pants without a pattern (without a commercial pattern). Hoist the pants up, laugh, and trace the seam at your back until you reach where you want the waistline to be. Mark that (awkwardly!) with a piece of tailor’s chalk. This is where you’ll attach the hemmed edge that you set aside as a belt. Fold that strip of cloth in half and attach the midpoint to your chalk line.
All that’s left to do is hem the cuffs and the top edge, trimming them first if necessary. You can also add a pocket, but I recommend first wearing the pants a few times so you can decide where you want to install it.

If you’re unsure how to wear these pants, watch the video tutorial for how to tie fisherman’s pants. It may take a bit of practice, but you’ll be a pro in no time.

As you learn to transform inexpensive curtains and unwanted tablecloths into tough-wearing clothing, you’ll experience the satisfaction of donning something you made with your own hands. The more you craft your own clothes, the more you’ll build up confidence for further projects, adding another tool to your self-sufficiency toolkit. After you’ve mastered the basics, you can expand your sartorial experiments to include dresses, shirts, and anything else you might fancy. So, take up your needle, thread, and an armload of old curtains, and join my Renegade School of Sewing!

More No-Pattern Sewing

One of my favorite beginning sewing projects was mastering how to make a skirt without a pattern. My simple skirt made with this pattern has only needed to be patched once after five years of service.

Wren Everett is a DIYer and budding seamstress. She and her husband live on an Ozark homestead, where they seek to live as self-sufficiently as possible.

Originally published as part of “Sew Your Own Clothing Sans Patterns” in the May/June 2023 issue of Grit magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.