Making Free People Inspired Cargo Pants From A Simplicity Pattern

Recently I made some Free People inspired cargo pants, so I thought I’d show you how I did it in case you were interested in making something similar for yourself!

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Approximate time put into this project: 3 weeks, with 2-4 hours put into the project almost every night

Disclaimer: I am trying to teach myself the Metric System. I will try to always include both measurements in my tutorials, i.e. centimeters and inches, meters, and yards. I have been using them interchangeably in my everyday sewing life lately, sorry if I switch between the two too often or forget to include them both. Thanks for understanding!

Watch this project instead, or check below for a brief summary.

Pattern & Tweaks

I found myself inspired by these Free People Bright Eyed Low Slung Cargo Jeans. They don’t seem to carry them any longer on their website. But Free People has a lot of cool cargo pants designs.

Features I particularly like about these pants include:

• The darts down the front and the back
• The different way these cargo pockets look compared to normal tactical-type cargo pockets
• The fact that, aside from those two tweaks, my optimistic brain thinks that this would be doable to sew – if only I can figure out that front dart with the pocket in the seam

I decided to use a Simplicity cargo pants pattern and tweak it to make these pants.

Some major things to note about how I tweaked the pattern:

• I decided to go with the pants size I would need if I were making this pattern the original way, but I opted to get rid of the elastic waist and instead put in a zipper. Adding the zipper allowed me to take out the extra fabric with the darts.
  • If you wanted to keep the elastic waist as is in the Free People design, I think I would size up one size so you could have the elastic waist and the darts. Just a thought, but this hasn’t been tested.
• I decided to skip the baggy ribbon ankle in the Free People cargo pants design and instead make it a straight leg. To do this, I traced another pant pattern I’ve used successfully before, which has a narrower ankle.
• For the top waist pocket, I kept it the same as in my Simplicity pattern; no tweaks were needed.
• The pocket in the dart on the side needs some work; I haven’t totally figured it out. It needs to be tucked into the seam, but somehow also needs to not be too tight so you can actually use it. More thoughts in this video here.
• Everything else was pretty straightforward.

Darts

The darts on the back of the pants were simple. I copied the placement for the darts from the Anna Allen Pants pattern, only extended it 22″-24″ (55.50 cm – 61cm) so that it hit around the back of the knee.

I followed the same pattern instructions for the pocket placement over the darts as well.

Note, after the pants were assembled I had some major gapping issues in the back (I’ll explain how I fixed it later). If at all possible in some way, I would try to guage how much fabric you’ll really need to take out to reduce gapping and add a little curve to the booty area. I would suggest measuring the waist, sewing the rear darts, and the center rear seam before attaching the pockets so you can adjust accordingliny without the placement of the rear pockets being sacrificed.

Moving to the front of the pants, I had to do the front waist pockets and zipper before placing the darts. You can find instructions for these in a previous post where I made my own shorts. After those are sewn, you’ll need to find the placement of the darts. However much you need to take out of the total waist width to make the waist fit your waist, will need to be divided between the two darts. You’ll create the darts in a similar fashion to those you made on the back. Mine were about 2.50″ (6.50cm) from the center front and extended to my knee.

Note, I had an issue with my thigh section being a little tight after I had finished sewing. I believe the solution is to take out less in the dart in the thigh area, but someone suggested adding a gusset to the crotch to resolve this issue. I have not tested this yet, but may in the future.

I recommend you use chalk and pin your front darts, but don’t sew them yet. We need to add the pockets on the side into the dart seam.

Side Pockets

The side pockets have to go into the front dart seam. To really see this in depth, I recommend watching the video here. But otherwise, I’ll do my best to explain.

After you’ve got your darts drawn out, you’ll want to find your placement for your side pockets. I recommend holding the pants up to your waist to find the best fit for you. Mine were about 3.5″ (9cm) below the bottom edge of the pocket at the waist. Draw a straight line with your fabric chalk.

Taking your pocket, you’ll want to tuck it into the fold of the dart where your chalk mark is and pin it to hold it in place. Make sure all the raw edges have been folded under by .50″ (1cm). After that, you’ll need to sew your darts in place before topstitching the dart and then the rest of the pocket in place.

As mentioned earlier, I didn’t get these quite right; they still need some tweaks – if you have any tweaks or suggestions, I would love for you to share them in the comments!

Extra Things To Consider

I had some waistband issues; to resolve this, I sewed some hook and eye closures to the back of the waistband so I could hook it tighter. It works well and saved me from having to undo all of my double-stitched seams. You can see my full process here.

Thigh/crotch issues, I haven’t resolved the thigh/crotch issue yet as I don’t want to undo all of my stitches that I spent weeks working on, but someone suggested that adding a gusset might resolve the issue without having to undo everything. I haven’t tried it yet, but if I do in the future, I will provide an update!

Finished Results

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Despite the difficulties, I really like how these turned out! They’re not perfect and honestly could use a few additional tweaks, but I put A LOT of work into making these Free People-inspired cargo pants, and I consider them a success.

What do you think?

If you make this project, tag and DM me on Instagram @doorsandfloorsblog so I can see what you make! Remember to use the hashtag #DoorsAndFloorsBlog

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