pants dance

So in my little attempt to scootch away from the border of that fine line between ‘crafting’ and ‘hoarding’ – y’all know what I’m talking about, unless you don’t, in which case you probably don’t need to worry about it – I decided to make a bit of a dent in my ‘refashion’ pile. First up, these used to be a pair of dark wide-leg denim London Jeans (victoria’s secret) that I had turned into maternity jeans. Now they’re a pair of wide leg denim Nicole Jeans.

The pictures are blurry because honestly? I shoot on manual all the time and so my flash doesn’t pop up on it’s own so I forget it exists. Don’t worry, for the next pair of pants I remembered it was there. (it’s been a bit cloudy lately)

For a moment I was pondering the fact that they’re not very snug around the crotch/hip/bum area and thinking I should fix that, and then a second later I was like GOOD GRIEF. I’M BUYING INTO THE NONSENSE. SHE IS  THREE. SHE DOES NOT NEED GOOD BUTT JEANS. Loose fitting is MORE than fine. I should make her pants more consistently and rid myself of the ridiculous notion that her pants need to be anything but loose fitting. Seriously, ridiculous. (disclaimer: I love leggings, skinny pants, etc. on Nicole, big time. I just think it’s nuts that it even bothered me that it wasn’t a slim fit around that area.)

For some reason the second she is modelling pants she is knock-kneed. Awesome.  And here we have pants number two, a pair of “Sunday Pants.” Now why on earth would I even consider putting pants on her on Sundays instead of adorable little skirts? Hmm, good question…

Oh, yeah. That’s why. You know what, regardless of the length cut or style of the skirt, I spend half the service fighting with her to sit nicely. Yes, skorts. She owns skorts. I still hate it when she wiggles around and her knee-length skorts are halfways up her thighs. I’m not never going to put a skirt on the girl, but I do think it’s nice to present the option. And it’s not like you can buy dresspants for girls in this age range, I’ve never looked but apparently others have.

These used to be a pair of my mom’s pants, for work. They had elastic all around and tapered towards the bottom of the leg. I’m hoping that’s why they wound up in my cut pile, mom. Anyways, Nicole gets a kick out of the fact that her pants used to be Grandma’s. They have a gathered elastic waistband in the back and a self-facing flat front. They’re a bit high waisted but she refuses to wear them any higher, so next pair I make I’ll take that down a notch so they don’t wrinkle too bad in the front like the below picture. They’re not that bad when she’s not being knock-kneed, I cut them as wide as possible and I actually love the way they fit on her.

Neither of these pants used a pattern, I just used some pants that fit her nicely as a guideline. If you’re scared of making pants, don’t be! It is SO easy. Just remember, when you are sewing the crotch, turn one pants leg right side out and put it inside of the other (still right side in) pants leg. Then it is ridiculously easy. Seriously, if you’re using an existing pair of adult pants and  thusly don’t have to hem the bottoms, you can whip up a pair of pants in between half an hour and 45 minutes, especially once you get the hang of it.

We’re on for the tutorial for the superhero cape I mentioned on Facebook. I don’t have a picture of that because I literally whipped it up in half an hour before going to my sister in law’s for my nephews birthday. Once I have a good day for picture-taking I’ll try and get that done. If you’d like to be prepared ahead of time for it, what you need for one is half a meter of polarfleece and two sheets of felt in coordinating colors, and then whatever type of fastening you’d like to use. (I used a snap because I’m paranoid about capes and strangulation.) You could use any fabric, you don’t need polarfleece, but with polarfleece you don’t need to hem. HOWEVER, it might be a bit warm in summertime. I’m not too concerned about that here because we have like 3 months of hot weather and 9 of cold.

Would y’all also be interested in a tutorial for adult dresspants made into girls dresspants, with elastic in the back and self facing in the front, as above? Seriously, it would take you less time to make than it would for me to make a tutorial for. It would work for boys, too, but I don’t think they’d look great at this age already without a faux fly.