11oz white hemp fatigue pants

Hello everyone, new pants but these aren’t jeans. They’re fatigue pants. Ike Cech’s fatigue pants were a huge inspiration for these. I am using the same fabric as him, an 11oz white hemp canvas that I got from Hemp Traders. Hemp is basically linen which is why they are so wrinkly. Hemp is super cool and is arguably better than cotton. Hemp is more durable, breathable, sustainable, and is antimicrobial. Though it’s not as popular as our ability to process hemp is less efficient, and there is stigma about it as it’s basically marijuana with no THC. I drafted this pattern myself and it is a simple straight fit. I will touch on this fit in a later post about something made of denim that will fade. What I think is important aside from fit is drafting the front and back pockets.

Front pockets:

When I looked at the front pockets of fatigue pants, the length and shape of the pockets looked like jean front pocket bags just sewn onto the front panel of the pants. So I used my jean front pocket panel, and applied it to make the front pockets. The pocket opening is a little bit different since it’s quite a different shape from jean pockets. From what I see on fatigue pants the top portion of the pocket opening, connected to the waistband, seems to be around ⅓  the total width of the pocket bag. The shaded region is extra material added to my pocket bag so it would continuously be connected to the side seam. 

Split top of pocket bag into thirds

To get the length of the pocket opening I measured my hand and added one inch of ease. Using this measurement, I put the tip of my ruler at the edge of the opening and tilted until it hit the measurement. 

The length looks to be around the exact same as jean pockets, so I kept that the same. After adding seam allowance the front pocket is done.

Back pockets:

The back pockets of fatigue pants look longer than jean pockets but not wider, but I think some of the length is a bit of an illusion with the flap that covers the pocket. The actual back pocket opening looks to be in a similar place as jeans, so I didn’t change the positioning of the back pocket. 

I did extend the length of the pocket by an inch as even with the same pocket placement the back pocket looks longer. 

For the pocket flap I made the width the exact same size as the pocket width, and for the length I just guessed. I used images of fatigue back pockets and used proportions from the button and pocket length to guesstimate the flap length. I have one issue with the flap where the inside corner of it folds up.

This happens as sometimes the corner gets folded when I sit down. I think there are two ways to fix this:

1) Make the pocket flap V shaped

If the pocket flat is folding at the corner let’s just remove the corner entirely. I don’t know if this would work 100% as folding could still occur at the new corner that is made, but it should eliminate most of the issue.

2) Get rid of the flap entirely

I think this is the less risky solution as there is no corner that could fold. This solution would mean sewing the button onto the back panel and sewing the button hole on the actual back pocket. 

Thanks for reading.