Pants with Side Stripes

Yet another pair of pants (and again from the Sandbox Pants pattern) for A, who busted his knee through his favorite pair of pants last week. I cut them from a pair of sweatpants in my sister's bag of clothes to be donated, and added the red stripes and pocket lining (leftovers from these pants). I cut about an inch below the sweatpants waistband so that I'd have room to sew it to the new pants, and then sewed right up against the elastic.

I did some thinking, and came up with an easy way to do stripes down the sides of pants (sorry, no pics).

BEFORE sewing pants, do this:
1) Cut a strip of fabric 2" x length of outer seam of pants
2) Fold the strip in half with WRONG sides together; iron flat
3) Place the strip between front and back pieces of pants, matching all raw edges (you'll have four raw edges to sew together: pant front, 2 edges of stripe, pant back). Pant pieces are right sides together, strip is inside them. Sew.
4) Turn the pants right side out, and the strip will be a flap. Iron it down flat, and then sew the loose edge (should be the folded edge) of it down to the pants. (I sewed it toward the back of the pants, since I had pockets in the front, but otherwise I don't think it matters which direction it goes.)
5) Stripes are done, now finish sewing your pants. :)

Pants, pants, and more pants

Warm, wooly leggings for M, cut from the arms of thrift store sweaters:

And a few more pair of Sandbox Pants for A:

I hate these jeans. When I was cutting them out, I didn't pay attention to the wash of the denim. Oops! :)

Greyish black pants with stars on the pockets ... stars because I was sewing after midnight and cut out the pieces incorrectly. In the end, they look alright!

The boys chose this fabric, and it makes me laugh. It's a heavy canvas with a basketweave. They call them the "checkered flag pants." These will never wear out! Ha.

Got it!

Got the sizing right this time on the Sandbox Pants. Love them.

More pants in progress ... upcycling some thrift store jeans, so i subtracted the length of the hem wjen lining my pattern up.

... and a first birthday gift for a friend. Skirt is tulle and elastic. Simple and girly. I think M needs one!

20-Minute Pillow Upcycle

 

A diversion, but a good one. I had promised my A, a reading pillow about a year ago. I was changing his sheets the other day and thought, I should just make that pillow already.

polo shirt dress and tutorial

Lay the polo shirt out flat.
Using a t-shirt that fits well, line up the ends of the sleeves.

Cut the sleeve at the shoulder.

To cut the skirt: Using a dress that you like the length of, line up the bottom of the dress with the bottom of the polo shirt. Cut straight across the middle of the shirt (straight really matters here).

To cut out the back bodice (top) of the dress: Fold your t-shirt in half, and line up the top of it with the top of the polo shirt. I decided to put the polo shirt's buttons in the back of the dress.

Cut out HALF of the top of the bodice by tracing the folded t-shirt: the neck, then the shoulders, then the armhole, then across the bottom of the bodice. Then remove the t-shirt, fold the cut part of the bodice in half, and repeat neck, shoulders, armhole, using your already cut half as your pattern. (This way, both sides of your bodice are exactly the same.)

Repeat for the front bodice (top) of the dress. I like to put the front of the t-shirt on the bottom, and then hold the back of the t-shirt away from the front while I'm cutting. (Hmm, I hope that makes sense.)

 

Then you have two bodice pieces: front and back.

Finish the collar edges of the bodice. Either fold them over toward the inside, or use bias tape.

Sew the shoulders together (right sides together), and then sew the side seams together.

Turn the bodice wrong side out. Put your sleeve, which is right side out, inside the bodice. Line up the underarm seams first, and then pin around.

The easiest way to sew a small cylinder is to put the sewing machine foot inside of it, like above.
Repeat to attach the second sleeve.

And there's your bodice.

Gather the top of the skirt, then attach the top of the skirt to the bottom of the bodice, right sides together.

The End. :)