Make It Monday: Make a Pair of Infant Pants

I'm a stay-at-home grandmother, caring for my lovely little granddaughter, Remy. She's in that phase where she's either eating everything in sight or growing out of all her clothes: 8 months old. Some time back, I made a pattern from a pair of pants I got at a thrift store, 9 months size. And then I pinned it on my board and left it there. Today, when mama dropped baby off, she said she'd had to buy a bunch of new clothes because Remy was outgrowing all her clothes so fast. I got to thinking, I'd better make those pants—fast!

Here's what I did.

First, turn a pair of right-sized pants inside out and trace them. Then trace around that pattern and add a seam allowance.

Cut it out and pin it onto your fabric, folded in half (the fabric, not the pattern). Now here's the thing. You can do it like I did and cut 2 fronts and 2 backs, or you can skip 2 seams by placing the outside leg side on a fold. Either way, what you are going to do after you sew the side seams is the same. But if you are cutting two pieces, then sew the two front pieces together and two back pieces together.

In some of the photos, you'll see red stitches. These are only so that you can see where pieces are sewn. In actuality, I used a zig-zag stitch in a neutral color, but you can't see it in the pictures. The reason I used a zig-zag stitch is because my material is stretchy, and this stitch helps the fabric stretch.

After you've sewn the two fronts together and the two backs together, sew from the waist to the crotch on each side. Your fabric should now look like the one above (unless you cut on the fold, in which case your center seam shown here will be missing).

Next fold the pants so it looks like a pair of pants, like in the next photo, so that the seams to the crotch are stacked one on top of the other.

Then, starting at the bottom of one leg, sew along the leg and up through the crotch and down the next leg to the bottom.

Next for the elastic casing. Fold over about an inch and stitch close to the edge, leaving a gap to thread the elastic through. Pin a safety-pin to one end of the elastic and thread it through the casing. Sew the gap closed.

One last thing to do now. Go to the bottom of each leg and either overcast or zig-zag stitch along the edge,  stretching as you go. As you stretch a sweet little ruffle is formed.