simple childrens' pant tutorial!

Simple Pant Tutorial!

If you are like me and have kids it seems like they grow every day! I am sure I am not the only mom that has a hard time keeping up with the demand of new clothes every 2-4 months! Well I finally got tired of buying clothes that will only be worn for a couple months and decided to draft some pants for my two boys using pants that fit and adding a few inches width and length wise. They may be a bit big when they first start wearing them but give it a few weeks and they will fit perfectly!

Materials needed:

1/2 yard of material (you will need more if going above a 5T)

sewing machine

all purpose thread

elastic

safety pin

cutting mat

rotary/scissors

yard stick

pair of pants

Cute model (Not necessary but makes for adorable pictures)

Step 1: You will need to lay your fabric on your cutting mat with your fabric folded in half with the stretch going width wise. As you can see by the picture below I lay the pants on the fabric with the crotch going to the right, I then cut around the pants leaving about 2 inches and cutting all the way to the top of the waistband, I also leave some excess on the end so the pants don't end up being too short once you hem them. Once you reach the top of the waistband you just make a straight cut to the fold of the fabric to make of your pants.

Step 2: Take the pant leg you just made and lay it on top of the fabric to cut around to make your second leg. You don't have to do it this way but it makes it much easier to get almost identical legs,

Step 3: Sew down the sides of your legs!

Step 4: Take one of the legs you just created and flip it rightside out. You will put this rightside out leg inside your inside out leg so that right sides of the fabric are facing each other. You should get something that looks like this (my fabric is fleece so you can see there is pattern on both sides but there is a definite difference between the right and wrong sides):

Step 5: Sew along the crotch, once you have sewn all the way around it with a straight stitch go back through and reinforce it with a zig zag stitch, I do this on the edges.

Step 6: You will now need to hem the bottom of the pants. You will need to pull your pant leg out from inside your other one to do this. I just used a straight stitch, that's my personal preference, but you can use a zig zag or decorative stitch as well!

Step 7: Measure the waist of your pants. Keep in mind the measurement that you get will be doubled as you have to go all the way around the top of your pants. Take that measurement and cut a piece that long, you can make the width anything that you want, I personally use 4"

Step 8: sew the ends of your waistband together and sew your waistband to your pants leaving a small gap to add your elastic. Remember to fold your waistband in half before sewing it to your pants to create your casing

Step 9: Thread your elastic through your waistband by using a safety pin and the small gap you left when sewing your waistband on. Remember to close your waistband off with a straight stich. when you are done you should get something that looks like this:

Finally! Put your little one in their new pants!