Big Pants For a Little Man

I hadn't really noticed until we had a boy, how little variety there is for infant/toddler boy clothes in the stores.  If you do see something cute, it costs an arm and leg.....and maybe a foot.  I had been looking for an Easter/Wedding outfit for the little man, and happened across this outfit at Shopko on sale for $18.  A shirt, tie, vest, and dress pants for $18?  I was sold.

Do you notice how huge those pants are????? This is suppose to be 6-9 month size.  I am sure those pants would fit a 12-18 month old boy.  So, I had a problem.  What am I going to do with these pants??

I ventured down to my sewing room that I share with the kiddos.................Oh the sacrifices I make!!! HaHa! 

  Meet Bertha..............I think I have expressed my ill feelings towards her before.  Somedays I could throw her in a gully.  Anyways, today of all days, she cooperated.  She must like polyester, because she just zipped through these pants like no one's business!  Oh Happy Day!

So, first I found a pair of pants that actually fit my little man.  See the problem??  I used these as a pattern to "resize" the black dress pants.

This is a picture of the black pants with the hem completely ripped out, and the pants inside out.  Crazy huge huh?  Next I took my white pencil and traced the outside leg seams, and inside leg seams so they were similar to my "pattern" pants.

See my white lines??  Then I just sewed new seams.  I didn't do any trimming, that way I can take these seams out if I need to. 

Then I turned them right side out..........................

and pressed the new seams.  Be careful not to have your iron too hot with polyester.  You could end up with "silvery" marks.

On to remaking the hems.  I used my "pattern" pants again, as a guide, and marked my dress pants.  As you can see in the picture, I left them longer, because I will fold them up and stitch them by hand to hold the hem in place. 

Next, I pinned this into place, and carefully turned them inside out again.  The rest of this project is done by hand.  Bummer!  Since I am shortening these pants, I did end up cutting some of the length off, just because it would have been way too bulky up inside the pant legs to leave it.

See, I cut off about an inch and a half.

Then I got out my trusty needle and thread and started whip stitching my hem to my pant.  Use tiny even stitches. 

Insided out....looks pretty good.  (See my silver mark from my iron being too hot?)

Next fold up your hem, and tack with small stitches on both sides of the outside and inside seams.

Next, fold up your hem, and tack on outside and inside seams with small stitches.

Too bad I didn't rotate this picture huh? But, a little better huh? 



Some new pants for my little man.