Making Harem Pants For Less Than $5

Everybody wants a great pair of harem pants whether you dance Cabaret or Tribal. There are lots of places on line you can order plain harem pants, but if you want a nice pair of harem pants with some real pizazz, consider making your own.

You can go to the fabric store, but you'll soon find that the material there is very limited as far as types of fabric and the designs available for the fabric. Another problem you may encounter is that putting the elastic in the waist is something even an experienced seamstress will find challenging. So what do you do when you're really not handy with a needle and thread?

I've got an idea I'm sure lots of you will want to take advantage of. I find broomstick skirts at thrift stores and I change them into harem pants with just a few easy stitches.

There are two really great advantages I have found in doing this:

• First, you don't have to make a waistband.
  
• Second, the fabrics used in already-made broomstick skirts are usually superior
  and more varied to what you'll find in a fabric store.
  

For those of you who don't know what broomstick skirts are, trust me, you've seen them a million times. They are long skirts with a generous amount of fabric that have a thick elastic waistband and are quite often made of thin cotton. The image shows an example of a broomstick skirt.

Once you've got your broomstick skirt, you're ready to make it into a pair of harem pants. This consists of three easy steps:

1. Cut out a U-shaped area in the center of the front of the skirt. Then cut out a matching U-shaped area in the back side.
2. Turn the skirt inside out and sew the U-shaped area together so that there is a crotch and two legs.
   (If you don't like sewing, get some fabric glue and simply glue them together.)
3. Make a place to put the elastic for the bottom of the legs.
   Many times you can simply use the hem that's there and insert the elastic through the opening, however, if there is no hem, fold the fabric over and then thread the elastic through.

You now have an interesting and unique pair of harem pants.

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If you make some harem pants and want to sell them, put them on estumes.com. Here are the instructions.