MYOG Supplex pants with zippered vents

Great job! I have to ask why the zipper on the inside?

Again awesome job!

Derek

I follow the pattern/guide that Jerry posted, which uses two pieces, the left and right halves. Each half is sewn individually at the inseam first then combined together at the crotch and butt seam.

I figured it would be easiest doing what I know and just putting the zipper where I already had a seam.

Benefit of this is that the opening is more protected from branches/shrubs, etc while walking and fresh air is blown straight up into the crotch area, keeping the boys nice and cool.

I'll be testing them on the trail next weekend and will use them when I do the Wonderland Trail at the end of the month. Will report back about the performance then.

Nice looking pants, good job!

Just don't use Roger's color choice : )

Or maybe for Roger it's colour

I concur, as usual nice work/execution Andy. It might be overkill some, but have you thought of both inside and outside vents?

Thanks guys!

Justin: actually, I did. I was contemplating putting in a few inches of vents just on the upper thigh on the outside to allow for good crossflow, maybe making them into zippered mesh pockets or something, but decided against it for simplicity's sake.

We'll see how these do when I get a chance to get out there this weekend, then I'll add more venting options if I need to.

Looks to me that there could be a lot of rubbing from the zip on one side to the mesh on the other.
The types I have seen have them on the outside and often shorter opening, but maybe worth a try.

If I put in a zipper I'de do it on the outside too. You want the pants smooth on the inside where it rubs against each other?

Maybe just sew on the zipper on the outside edge of the zipper tape, then cut a slit, then fold over the raw edge and do a second row of stitches to the zipper tape close to the zipper teeth.

When I'm actually wearing it and walking around, they don't rub against each other all that much.

Also, the mesh doesn't stick out when open as the vent opening is only about 1.5-2" wide.

Also, the vents begin a few inches below the crotch seam so there's no discomfort there.

But yeah, the weather is supposed to be nice and warm this weekend so I'll see how these do in actual use and decide if I want to add zips to the outside… Probably not though, since the outsides of the pants make more contact with my quads/legs than the inseam does, so it might be uncomfortable & mesh/zip would rub more.

How these look on with the zips open, normal stance.:

yeah, probably doesn't matter, best to see if inside zipper works on some trips

maybe someone else is reading this and will benefit from everyone's ideas : )

For sure, Jerry! I'm really glad I found your tutorial.

My other idea was to make 2-3 vents horizontally across the legs starting at/above the knee and shingled over the other with mesh backing and a vent below the butt cheeks, like how some hiking button up shirts or wind beakers have that back vent. Vents like that would be full time though, plus a lot more work, but would be interesting to try out.

For outer zips or horizontal vents, I'd go with a softer, stretch or jersey mesh so since it'd be more comfortable directly against the skin vs the noseeum mesh.

I also appreciate all your posts about making stuff

It seems like with shingle vents, the fabric would just hang closed so there'de be no venting.

It seems like to get good venting you would need to unzip totally so it would flap in the wind and as you moved. Or better – take off pants.

No pants a la Discovery's "Naked and Afraid"? If only the bugs weren't so cruel.

Good point about the horizontal vents.

FWIW I kinda like the inside vents as long as they are comfy in use. First off I think you stand to vent more heat from the inseam area for some obvious reasons. And as you said earlier less chance of snagging. Cant wait to see how they work out. Waiting on your MYOG gear review.

jimmyb

Ok And E how did those vents work out. Did you get a chance to try them out yet?

jimmyb

The vents worked great. I didn't notice any rubbing or discomfort from the zippers/vents. It was in the upper 70s – 80s and we started off the hike with 2000+ elevation gain in <4 miles mostly in the sun. Legs stayed nice and dry and protected from mosquitoes and biting flies.

Started the next morning's leg of the hike with pants zipped until we started climbing again and opening the vents really dumped the heat. You have to be moving though to get the full benefit of the vents

Only problem is that in an attempt to tailor the pants more around the waist/pelvis, I didn't give myself enough room to really be able to take large steps/spread my legs much, so I'm going to have to rip the crotch/butt seams and add a gusset or something.

I had to make some modifications to make my pants fit good

In my article I say how to make more room for your butt, that might be useful, it's a little non intuitive and required a couple iterations

Thanks Jerry!

When I was adapting the pattern I had been using for my rain pants, I shrank it down too much and forgot to leave plenty of room for the crotch/butt portions of the pattern.

I took apart some of the crotch and butt seams and added a gusset. This fixed the problem and now the pants fit perfectly and I can do all the lunges I want… But…. Now the front (and probably the back) look like a certain part of the female anatomy.

But people won't/shouldn't be staring at my crotch on the trail so no biggie.

Here's the gusset..

And here's.. Yeah…

You can hardly see that, good work