DIY HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN DITTOS PANTS

Hi there!  Today I'll talk about how you might go about sewing your own Dittos Pants.  The first step is to decide what type of Dittos Pants you want to make.  Most people are interested in making the saddleback version, but there are other types of Dittos Pants and Jeans.  See my previous post on this subject of April 3, 2017 here.

Okay if you would like to make the Saddleback Dittos Pants you will need cotton stretch twill fabric in a pastel or even a regular color.  You could also use denim either lightweight or the normal heavy weight. Stretch denim would work better.  Other fabrics they used to use were corduroy and a light weight crinkle gauze.  Note that if you use black or some of the darker colors other people may not be able to see the saddleback seaming which is the whole point of the Dittos pants don't you think?  I call them Dittos pants because only a few of them were actual jeans and most were pants.

This pattern, as I mentioned before, is the closest pattern I've ever seen to the Dittos style:  The 1970's McCall's 5182 "Carefree Patterns".  Hint to search for this pattern just search for McCalls 5182 no apostrophe.  The pattern number has been reused several times so look for the picture shown.

Patterns from the 1970's were much smaller in size.  You may have to grade up the pattern to fit.  It is best to go by your hip measurement plus 2 inches or so for ease.  On this pattern you will need to do several changes which I have outlined on my earlier post.

1.  Take out the point in the saddleback shape at the back.
2.  Put the seams going down the legs to the back not the sides as the envelope and pattern show.
3.  You may decide whether or not to include front pockets on your pants or not; however, the original Dittos saddleback pants had no pockets whatsoever.
4.  It may be necessary for you to raise the waistline.
5.  You will need to add belt loops to the waist band.
6.  Saddleback Dittos had more of a flare type of hem rather than an actual large bell bottom.  I once talked to someone that was selling her Dittos pants and she said that the bottom hem was a total circumference of 23 inches.
7.  All Dittos had the normal jeans zipper fly front.  The color of the zipper was the aluminum or silver color jeans zipper rather than the old brass or bright brass color.  You may choose to use the color zipper you like or even a matching color polyester zipper.
8.  The original top button was a snap, (British term:  Popper), rather than a jeans button.  You could use a jeans button with button hole or sew on a button if you like.
9.  What if you can't find the McCall's 5182?  Then you'll need to draft your own pattern from a jeans pattern.  In that case you would not do the yoke at the back of most jeans, not have any pleats and not add any pockets unless you wanted to add pockets in the front.  Cut the back of the pants pattern in half in a way that will form the saddleback seam. This is not to scale or anything- just a quick drawing- and I couldn't show the seam going down the back of the leg like it should.

Suppose you want to make the more simple version of Dittos - Bareback Dittos?

You need to do all the changes listed above, but not make the saddleback at all, just have the seam going up the rear.

How would you make those Side Saddle jeans I mentioned in the earlier post?  Ahh this gets much much more complicated, but still do able.  If you can't find Simplicity 7093 then you could modify a trouser style jeans pattern and place the saddle on the sides rather than the back.  Somewhat like shown above.  It's hard to show the seams on the front and back of the legs however.  I'm having trouble remembering where the front pockets were located and how they were sewn in.  They may have been more like the regular jean pockets with no coin pocket.  These jeans are the trouser style so they have about 3 pleats near the front.  You need to incorporate this into the pattern or draft your own.  Of course since they will be your pants you can do away with the pleats as well.  Rather than flares these were skinny jeans or stove pipe jeans that were fitted around the ankle with ankle zippers.

If you would like to make the high rise Dittos which may look better for larger women's sizes you can follow the McCall's 5182 pattern only have the saddleback go closer to the waistband and then have the seams on the side of the legs as shown in that pattern.  In this case you would keep the point in the center back of the saddleback design.  See above.

Chevron and double chevron.  These type of Dittos are a favorite for the Frankie B's company only they add pockets to theirs.  As you can see, in the original versions there are no pockets and for the single Chevron there is "no" waistband and two snaps or buttons.  These would be somewhat similar to bareback Dittos only with the Chevron seams added.

I'll address one more style of jeans here simply because I saw these worn on an episode of Charlie's Angels from the 1970's.  These would be the Y back pocket jeans.  This pair might actually be from Frankie B's collection - I'm not sure.  Make a Chevron and use a slighter darker wash of denim in about the yoke area or closer to the waistband of a normal pair of jeans and then using that same slighter darker wash of denim, make the Y shapes for the back pockets and belt loops.  You can see the back pockets are rounded on the bottom part.  The leather patch is not necessary.  I believe the front pockets were patch pockets with a rounded or tulip shaped bottom to them.  On the right side in the illustration above on the top is the waistband and underneath it the Chevron shape.  On the left side at the top is the back pocket and below that is the Y shape.  Sometimes it's easier if you break down shapes and other items into individual parts.

I hope this post will be helpful to you and make you see that you can sew various patterns of jeans by re-arranging seam lines and other design characteristics.

Thank you for reading and Happy Sewing!

Kathy