Contrasting stripes are on trend this summer! Sportswear or tuxedo, this surprisingly versatile detail can adapt to many styles.
Adding contrasting stripes to your Narcisse pants is really easy! Simply cut piece #3 in a contrasting fabric, and that’s it. You’ll just need to be careful to pick a fabric with a similar composition, and most importantly similar weight to your main fabric, or the stripes might collapse to the inside of the legs.
The good news is that the stripes can be cut on the cross-grain in most cases, which means you’ll only need 25 cm (10”) to cut both stripes, even in 45” wide fabric: perfect to use leftovers from a previous project! In this case it’s even more important than usual to pre-wash your fabric to prevent it from shrinking once it’s sewn, as the shrinking rate is often different length- and width-wise.
Possibilities are endless to find the right fabric combination for you: black or white pants with a brightly colored stripe will look very sporty, while monochrome pants with a softer contrast could be pretty chic. You can also use a print for the side stripes only: make them blend in by keeping the same background color as your main fabric, or create a trompe-l’œil with vertical stripes.
For an even more subtle result, you can also play with the cutting direction of your pieces. Cut the side stripes on the cross-grain in a striped fabric, as we did for our shop sample, or on the biais in a plaid! Be careful in this case to not stretch the pieces while you make the pants, as biais edges can stretch out easily, and plan for extra yardage since it’ll take more fabric.
If you want to go even further, the extra little detail would be to add some piping to frame the side stripes. To do so, sew the piping first to the main fabric pieces, before sewing the front pockets, then continue making the pants as usual.
