DIY zip off midlayer pants

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

[I realize KUIU does zipoff baselayers now, still surprise no one else does. Or at least none I am aware of, anyone know of others?]

A few years back I was frustrated at the lack of zip off midlayer pants out there (who wants to ditch boots to take off or add a layer?). At the time I had my mother in law make me a roughed out pair but they were too baggy and also I bought #5 zippers for them which were a bit stiff. I've sewed in the past and my wife had now picked up a machine so I was thinking about reworking those pants. Well I veered off and decided to just pick up a pair of mircrofleece pants for $15 and add the zippers into those.

So started with a low cost pair of white sierra baz az pants that I bought in large to have some extra material to work with. Picked up some 40" YKK #3 nylon coil SEPARATING zippers, velcro, and some black polyester extra fabric.

1) I put the pants on and used binder clips to gather up the extra fabric taper the legs more to mine so they weren't baggy, then I took them off and laid flat to figure out what that width was as it went up my leg so I could mark all the leg pieces the same.

2) I cut out that extra material, up near the pocket I only removed the seam since reworking the pocket would be a pain and also it wasn't that baggy there.

3) Laid out the zipper evenly on each side and pinned it. The way I installed the zippers was to sew the inside of the zipper facing out with it lying on the face of the seam allowance (outward face of the pants), once that was stitched I rolled the zipper to the inside and ran another stitch along the zipper and now doubled over fabric. Repeat all 4 pieces.

4) I used some polyester fabric to make some velcro tabs for the waist, I widened the tab on the sewed side thinking it might pull on the fabric more evenly. Added velcro.


Here is one leg with the zipper installed, you can see the difference in the cut between the original side:

Velcro tab. Colors aren't perfect but this is a functional layer to me not a fashion show. Same goes for my stitching patterns, functional was my only concern, I'm not a seamstress.

 

[WoodBow]

I like it. So what kind of outer pant are you running? I assume it is full zip as well or the mid layer zipper is pointless.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Drop your outer pants to your ankles and add/remove the mid layer, yank pants back up. When adding you might have to tug the mid layer down at the bottom and/or tuck the thighs a tad to get stuff to settle but I'd rather do that then lace/unlace boots.

 

[BCsteve]

I like it!

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I had bought a pair of low cost terramar fleece pants as well not being sure what ones I'd want to use as a donor. Probably will end up doing them too since they were cheap and I have more zippers.

 

[WoodBow]

Makes perfect sense now. I feel pretty stupid for not seeing that option.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I had a little time yesterday and started adding zippers to the terramar pants too (I like options in my hunt duffel between gear getting wet and 70F turning into -23F in the same hunt I'm a fan of layer options in the truck...). I've done one leg so far (haven't done waist tabs yet) but I'm liking the fit/feel on these a bit more.

These were already form fitting enough that I didn't need to remove any material since the seam allowance would take out an inch anyways. I went ahead and sewed the zippers onto the leg before cutting the fabric this time. The last bit was hard to work into the machine as the leg tapered down but it let me keep the zippers aligned fairly well. After I cut and flip the zipper to the inside I used a zig zag stitch over the top (seemed like a good idea with the fleece). I'll need to look into my machine but occasionally it misses a zig zag stitch so I have some stitches that go "^^^^^^^^^-^^^^". Oh well I'm learning, fully functional but slight aesthetic detractor.

Anyways in case the zipper install didn't make sense, here's a couple pictures. The inside face of the zipper is facing out and the coil is to the outside on this first stitch. I figure its easier to stitch on the zipper this way and roll it under so I end up with a more consistent double over seam versus trying to feed the machine with ~1/2" of doubled over fabric consistently.

 

[WoodBow]

Your machine missing stitches can be caused by a number of things such as dull/bent needle, improper presser foot pressure, improper thread tension, missed step in machine threading etc.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I'll have to look into it more, likely a thread tension if I had to guess since I haven't really messed with that much as long as it sewed... learning still.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Back from a work trip now and had time to sit down and finish the terramar pants as well. Some aesthetic goofs here and there as I learn but fully functional for a personal use baselayer (so I just need to keep that in mind when my internal critic comes to the surface). These were size large and much more athletically cut, esp. in the lower legs, I didn't cut out any material just whatever the circumference difference was due to doubling the material when sewing it onto the zipper.

The material on these is a tad thinner and with the snugger fit, seems like they'll fit under non-baggy outer layers better. The lower leg might be tricky with boots since its snug and will either need to be tucked in or ride above, if tucked into a boot in the morn I think I'll be able to pull it free from the boot to remove the layer without issue but I doubt I'll be able to retuck it without boot removal when putting these on in the field so they'll need to ride above the boot most likely. I'll see in practice, I may prefer just wearing them above the boot in general. I haven't tried them on with boots yet to see if I feel the zipper if tucked into the boot, but the end of a #3 zipper is pretty small and whenever these are on I'd expect thicker socks on too.

Anyways a couple photos:

 

[gwl79902]

wow those are great

 

[ozyclint]

personally, the velcro tab closures wouldn't agree with my pack waist belt.

 

[WoodBow]

The more I think about these, the more I need a pair. I don't plan to take scissors to my Allegheny bottoms but I have some UA and some fleece bottoms that may go under the knife. I hunt whitetail WAY more than elk. It may be 30 in the morning and 70 by the time i'm walking back to the truck. Sure would be nice to be able to easily shed a pant layer. I hunted with some guys last year and was waiting to be picked up by the road after the morning hunt. I was about to roast after a good bit of walking and had to strip down to my drawers to shed my base layer bottoms and try to get clothes back on before anyone found me naked by the road!

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

wow those are great

Thanks.

personally, the velcro tab closures wouldn't agree with my pack waist belt.

Too be determine but I purposely went with velcro over snaps so I had a flatter attachment. Over all the material isn't too much thicker there and builds gradually. I usually have a belt on and that doesn't cause me issues with a pack so I sorta doubt this will. My day pack is a thinner belt that I usually wear higher and should be able to ride these a bit lower to avoid overlap all together. My haul pack has a wider belt but if I'm humping a heavy pack I doubt I'll be wearing a baselayer like this unless is subzero... The perk (for me) with something like this is I don't need to have it on when I'm humping a pack just so its on later when I stop to glass or such, I can just put them on later.

I've got all of $20 into these and got some practice on the sewing machine so no biggie even if I run into issues.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

The more I think about these, the more I need a pair. I don't plan to take scissors to my Allegheny bottoms but I have some UA and some fleece bottoms that may go under the knife.

Yeah I wouldn't butcher a nice set but both the pants I started with I got for like $15 or so.

I have 6 more of those 40" zippers if you need a pair. (Bought a 10pack off ebay since it was about the price of ordering 4 from something like zipper stop).

 

[fngTony]

Nice work! Do you think it would be worth doing on snow pants? I have a few pairs and this maybe cheaper than buying some zip off glassing pants.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Potentially, I think the fit of the snow pants would be a factor.