Pants Crazy!

I've been going crazy about making pants!  It was partly motivated by the fact that my Kewpie Doll is sprouting and her pants are shrinking, so she needed some more pants. Part of my motivation is how easy and quick it is to make pants.  Let me show you!  

I traced a pair of Kewpie's pants that fit her well.











And made a pants pattern that I have been using on EVERYTHING!

Notice that I cut two of the same pattern, with the straight line on the fold.  My pattern wasn't as long as Kewpie needs, so I measured her best fitting pants from the crotch to the ankle and used that number to determine the end of her pants.

Remember my summer-time pajamas?  Made from the pattern above.

I really love taking a wide elastic, stretching it across the fabric, and sewing directly to the waist instead of making a casing.  So much easier!  It's helpful to pin the waist in quadrants and the elastic in quadrants and attaching them together that way, so you know you're sewing the elastic on semi-equally all the way around.

I also made some sweats out of scraps of an old t-shirt.  Made from the same pattern.

I used the hem of the old shirt at the waist, cut notches for the drawstring to go through, and I already had my drawstring casing. Super fast, super easy, and Kewpie is delighted to have work out sweats just like mine!

I cut off the sleeves of an old cardigan, spread them out on my pattern and cut them to make ribbed leggings.

  I sewed an elastic at the top, and they were ready to wear!

It feels like these leggings were too wide, and therefore got a little baggy.  I might go back and sew it more narrow.

But then, it was an old cardigan, and perhaps there's not much stretch left in it.

I made the pattern a little wider to make these cotton elastic waist pants.


I'm learning that the same front and back works fine for tight-fitting pants, like leggings, but is less comfortable in looser pants, like these.

The problem is that we just aren't the same in the front as we are in the back!

Last of all, I took one of my old layering t-shirts and cut it up to make leggings to go under dresses.


I used the hem of the t-shirt so that I wouldn't have to hem the leggings 


(I'm so scared of hemming knits.  I can't help but stretch them.)


I sewed an elastic directly to the top of the leggings.

That's the end for now.

I'll be back with more!