My Lazy Way of Making Kids Clothes: Trousers

No matter how hard I try to take care sewing my clothes, for now, I’m just sewing like the blazers when it comes to children’s clothing… well for my two year old at least.

So today, for you who look for shortcuts, have a squizz at my lazy way to make children’s clothes! I don’t usually do tutorials, or plan on doing them, but it’s nice sometimes to share how easy things are as well. There are usually so many resources online, and rather than compile my own how to do shit here, I usually pin my favourites, on the pinterest… so follow there if you are keen for sewing techniques that are a little more refined than this blog post!

These toddler trousers are upcycled from my Husband’s uniqlo t-shirt that was a lovely thick stretch knit that fitted snug and then after a few wears was too snug for him to be comfortable. For the pattern, I used Felix’s old trousers, a pair of stretch knit floppy harem or low crotch style toddler pants… call them whatever… they are just great little trousers for him to get around town and be a child.

First up, fold the trousers in half, they are pretty much the same front and back… These trousers are from the Children’s Market in Shanghai (my Husband bought them in May last year) and got really dirty and stained because he is a 2 year old child. They’re a fun shape though, and I will re-use the waistband as it’s lovely and wide!

Definitely enough fabric in the Man Top, so I used the existing side seams as the crotch seam, and cut around the rest of the old trousers and leaving enough seam allowance for my overlocker… You don’t have to use an overlocker with sewing knits, but I’ve had mine for ages, and I love it and use it for all my finishing… but google up ‘sewing knits without an overlocker’ and I bet you’ll find some tips!

So then I serged the sides of the new trousers, front to back, right sides together, and then carefully matching the crotch seams (the old side seams) … I serged the leg seams … and so I had the pant shape!

I cut off the old waistband, pinned it out to the top of the pants, stretching it out as I stitched… and I used the straight stitch machine just because I didn't have that much wriggle room with the seam, and sometimes I have a bit more control in the straight stitch with small spaces.

And now, amazingly the original Uniqlo tag at the side of the tshirt serves as the tag for the back of the trousers... (um, that was an accident!) (the two white holes of the waistband was where an old drawstring used to be, why do children's clothes have elastic and drawstring waists? Seems like a double up to me!)

Then I did a little pretend cuff on the legs… where you (and I stared at it for ages trying to remember how to do it) fold the hem up inside, and then sew a seam… I actually can’t remember it right now, and the internet is down while I type this… so let me google and through the magic of typing here and the future, here it is.

I think this way is how I did it, but there's not enough photos or explanation!

And this is another way, but not the way I did it... but kinda... you just fold the hem inside the fold and stitch (either under or topstitch I can't remember)... and then iron flat to look like a cuff. GAH, I'll have to take photos next time!

And voila, toddler’s trousers!

*This post has taken so long to put together, being in China, our access to 'Western' internet pages is hit and miss... I decided to try flickr with putting my photos there, and the whole process is just so time consuming... Gah! I'm really over blogger's photos and layout and might have to transfer to another blogging platform soon... google & blogger are not as welcome in China, so my access isn't as good as I'd hoped even with my VPN. Gah! And oh well! Thanks for reading! xo