Thursday, June 10, 2010

20 minute pants for kids


Wild afternoon here... I was quietly putting 27 million loads of folded washing away when I walked in on this scene.. I kept walking :)


(ok from the get go I am going to apologise for the dark, relatively not great photos... and also the lack of photos in finishing this project. I got right into it and I didnt want to ruin my mojo.. if you need more photos, let me know)

The stitch fest continues....

Another project that seems to be working in quite a wonderful way came about due to sheer neccessity. Amahli has limited amount of pants. And in her tiny, full on way, she goes through about two pairs a day in her 'how dirty can I get before mum has to change me?' fun. Add to that the shocking wet weather and my serious disinterest in washing everyday, we ran out of clothes for her pretty quick. So instead of taking the easy way and washing, I did something more fun and decided to make her some new ones :) (now THAT is some serious procrastination!)

AND THEY ARE TOOO EASY!!

Heres how to make the pants (I made a whole pair from cut to finish in the time she was in the bath: about 20 minutes)

Fold a pair of currently worn pants inside out and in half. Place them on the fold of your fabric, the length of the pants on the fold. I then trace about half an inch out from the pants and about two inches higher at the waist band ( to allow room to make casing) I also trace a good inch or so out from the waist to allow for elastic. Do this twice so you have two pieces.



You can just see the red texta outline above.

The cut pieces still folded in half, there are two of these.

Place cut pieces right sides together and stitch along dotted line shown below



Open up pants and stitch the whole length of the inside leg, from ankle to ankle.


Looks like pants already!
(sorry photos stop here but instructions are pretty easy)
Fold up the bottom of one leg to make a hem.
To do the hem I fold it about a quarter of an inch, and then fold that again so the hem looks neat. Pin and stitch and repeat for other leg.

At the waist of the pants, fold over about quarter of an inch and pin. Sew around the entire waist.

Fold over again the width of your elastic. ( Mines a inch thick so I normally make this fold a tiny bit bigger so it threads through easily. Pin in place around the entire top of the pants.

Stitch around the top of the waist, stitching close to the fold, creating a casing. Stop and leave a gap about two inches long.

Thread elastic through the waist and try on a willing subject, or do what I do, measure their waist using the elastic so I know exactly how much elastic I need.

Once threaded through, stitch the two sides of elastic together.


Close stitch the casing and you are done!!




Now you can go pick the most gorgeous fabrics, whizz these up and have everyone asking where you got them from :)



2 comments:

  1. So, on Sunday we were out of shorts for the boys, and so what's a Mom to do? Why sew up new shorts of course...... So I sewed a pair of the shorts for each of hte boys.

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  2. oh thats awesome Ticia! Did you use a pattern or wing it?? :)
    how great is it when you realise something actually works and its saved you money :)
    LOVE IT :)

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