Little trousers

With so many little boys in the house, you'd think there would be lots of little trousers wouldn't you. Well, you'd think wrong. Somewhere along the way, we've lost all the 6-12 month clothes, which is a shame, but not the end of the world (in so many ways). The other boys are 6 months out on the new one, so that they were new born in the summer, and then snug in dungarees come the winter. The new fellow, however, needs to dress for a steaming hot, as yet to materialise, Virginia summer.

 

I can run these little trousers up in minutes - almost less time than it would take to go upstairs and find a clean pair. They're just simple, two pieces (left and right, more on that below), drawn round another pair that fit, with soft elastic at the waist. We use washable nappies, so a lot of commercial trousers are too narrow (I'm looking at you especially, Gap), so I make them with extra big bottoms and lots of give.

 

 

I had asked my husband for a bundle of prints with bugs on for my birthday, thinking of making underwear for me, and lining a handbag. Instead I got elephants. I'm hoping he didn't know I intended to make underwear with them. Still, it's a lovely fabric and they make cute boy pants.

 

 

 

This pair is from a sheet from Goodwill. $1. I think it will make 4 pairs - one for us, one has already gone in the post, and there's a bunch left too. It was a fitted sheet, so I saved the elastic for that smug thrifty feeling.

 

 

So the little man can coordinate with his lady friends, I edged this fun Edwardian bicycle print (just from JoAnns) in orange bias tape.

 

But then I got other ideas and ran into a whole load of trouble.

 

I have a lovely new friend who has a boy 6m older than my baby. She very kindly passes his nice, only worn by one child, washed and ironed (!) clothes onto us, so I thought I would make some clothes for her kids.

 

Rather than winging it by drawing round clothes and cobbling things together, I thought I would actually follow a pattern, and used one from the Lotta Jansdotter book Simple Sewing for Baby. I've sewn lots from this book, especially the little dresses, and really like it, but my goodness, the trouser pattern. Never again. When I read other people's blogs and they talk about 'badly drafted patterns', I've always wondered what they're talking about, and think 'how can they tell?'. Well, now I know.

 

Making pants in 2 pieces is easy. But, as I said above, they should be left and right, not front and back. You can't really tell from the photo, but my word are they a weird shape.

 

So I tried to redeem things by making a little shirt to go with them. But that turned out pretty badly too. Craft Fail. Still, she was very gracious about them.

 

Fortunately I also made her older daughter a little apron for baking. That, at least, was a success.