Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Pants for my Monkeypants

Back in May, I went on a sewing binge. My little boy would soon be spending his days with the sitter and I would soon be spending my days sitting... in my office. Sigh. I assuaged my maternal anxiety by making pants. Cute little pants for Mr. Mogrunt Monkeypants.

Not trusting my ability to make pants from a hand drawn pattern, I picked up a pattern for children's pajamas and got to work. I traced the pattern onto freezer paper, rather than cut out the pattern pieces. I want to be able to use this pattern for many different sizes, so I thought this would be the best way to go. Originally I took a little length off the legs, but after the first two pairs of pants, I realized that a little more length and a little extra room in the seat wouldn't be a bad thing.

Pants for my boy


I also figured out that you need to use non-folding elastic for the pants - it makes them so much more comfortable around the waist.

Another thing I did after the first couple pairs - I sewed French seams for all of the seams. I have no serger and my sewing machine is old. Switching back and forth to zig zag the seams would have been torture for both me and the machine. I don't know when the machine might decide it will give up the ghost. The French seams just seemed nice and tidy for these pants.

For two pairs, I cut the pieces out of a couple of dress shirts that had belonged to Mr. Happy. He no longer wore them so they made lovely pants for our boy.

Shirt pants


I took the shirt pockets and sewed them on the back of the pants. The pocket is a little "oversized" and kind of cute - though not really noticeable.

To mark the pants so that we could tell which way was the back, I stitched a little ribbon into the waistband. I found some old name tag ribbon that my mom had bought for my brother many years ago - from the Eaton's catalogue (so, not yesterday) - and just folded it in half so only my maiden name shows when you look in the pants.

One thing I discovered while making these pants is that there is a thin line between a boy wearing cute little homemade pants and a mullet-coiffed dude wearing a tank top and wrestling pants.

Treading the line


A thin, thin line.

Since making these pants, I've been staring rather longingly at the cute pants people are making from Anna Maria Horner's book, "Handmade Beginnings". I've requested the book from the library but had a peek at the instructions in a local bookstore. I think I might be able to fudge a pair of these adorable pants from her instructions. I just wish that a local store carried her fabrics.

Though the fact that the alphabet fabric had my name on it...

STEPH!


...almost makes up for the lack of AMH's fabric.

Almost.

(Apologies for the wrinkly pants in the photos. I took these photos on the fly one day when all the pants were clean at once. Taking the time to iron them... HA! Are you nuts?)

3 comments:

  1. HA! So cute and funny. I understand the fine line... Trust me I do... There is a fine line with most home sewing projects.
    I can't believe you did french seams! So advanced and time consuming!!!!!!

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  2. The pants are adorable! If you like you can borrow my serger the next time you do some sewing. It's actually my mom's old machine and I'm ashamed to say that I've had it for almost 2 years and I have yet to use it.

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  3. wow - what a lot of sewing! adorable pants.

    thanks for the library reminder...i think i'll check if my local one has that book too. i'm only a tiny bit worried it will make my ovaries hurt.

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