Boys Clothing: Olympic Themed Pants

After my son E decided he loved the flannel pirate pants in the pyjamas I made him so much we wasn’t going to take it off, I realised that little kids love colour and pictures. They love them and they couldn’t care less if they are not fashionable. Boys fashion is horrible. Sure they look nice enough, sophisticated toddlers in their navy, grey and brown, but they don’t care about our social construction, they just want to love the pattern and colour on their clothing. So I have decided to make E some pants, in kid’s pattern material. As summer comes the cotton fabrics will be great. I will make pants into shorts and let him love what he is wearing. He can have the rest of his life to conform to society’s norms. As an adult he will be confined to typical men’s clothing and shunned if he dares to commit the worst crime of wearing pink! So while he is little enough to just like what he likes I am going to let him enjoy it.

Anyway!

I made him some pants with an Olympic theme in honor of the London games. I found a brightly coloured fabric with beefeaters in Beatlesque style and throught it was great. I decided in addition I would add a red stripey cuff for good measure (mainly because they were replacing the pyjamas which had a cuff). I procrastinated on these pants. They were half done then I couldn’t bring myself to sew again to add the cuff. I even did one cuff, then took a few days to do the other! In the end the realisation that the games had started and the pants weren’t finished moved me into action and I finished them.

E loves them! (He still wouldn’t oblige by turning around to have a photo though!)

Two days in a row now he has come to me carrying the pants asking to change out of his other clothing into them and he says to me, “Mum, I am going to wear these for a really long time”. “OK, E” I say. And I mean it too. I made them about 2 sizes too big so he can wear them ’til they fall apart!

How did I make them?

I used my favourite boys pants pattern, here. I use the FLAT FRONT PANTS. The pattern has options for both. I think they look better for day wear. Incidentally if you add extra size to the pattern and use the gathered pattern they make good shape pj pants that aren’t bag shaped (perhaps its only me that doesn’t like bag shaped pjs?). I added about 1cm to the outside of the pattern. Added the cuff giving me extra length in two ways. 1. by not hemming the pattern the legs were longer anyway and 2. obviously the extra length of the cuff. The cuff means that I can fold that up until his legs get longer. Coming up to 3, he will no doubt lengthen in the coming months!
I also added extra length to the top at the back as he still wears a nappy and it helps to cover the extra bulk.

Now I just need to make some for W. Poor thing never gets the new pants because E has so many that he has outgrown!

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June Challenge Week 1, Part 2 – The Result!

Here is a recap. My challenge for June is to take 1 or 2 items from a thrift shop and make them into something else. Here are the 2 things I used this week.

Item 1 – a brown linen skirt with crochet detail around the bottom. (a truly hideous garment made worse by overstretching, personal taste of course)
Cost $1

Item 2 – a brown cotton skirt with a print that reminds me of dandelions and lovely black pen marks scribbled across the front.
Cost $1

Ta-da!

My son E modeling the result! Brown linen toddler pants with dandelion pockets.

Although that linen skirt was truly awful, I LOVE linen. I really LOVE linen pants for $1.

And I especially love linen pants with interesting and USEFUL pockets. A boy has to have a place to keep his treasures you know?..rocks, sticks, biscuits etc

My husband was a bit horrified when I showed him the skirts initially and said that E would be having pants made out of flowers, but he was fine with the result. I wanted to start with pants because I was a bit nervous at refashioning, having never done it before and I had made pants using this pattern before…just not quite this way.

I love using patterns that are traditionally considered to be feminine with a twist (like the silhouette dandelion print) on men or boys. I think if they are worn the right way they emphasise the masculinity (by contrast I suppose). These pants will be great in spring with a loose white shirt and sandals. They could equally be worn by a girl, but when I saw the skirt immediately thought of boys clothing.

I used my favourite pants pattern from here (the greatest shape I have found ANYWHERE!) combining the basic pants with the pocket pants.

I made the pants a bit bigger than the pattern to suit the loose nature of linen pants and because it made it possible to adapt the pattern pieces to fit the side seams of the skirt. Also, because I used the side seams of the linen skirt that already existed, I had to unpick the sides to insert the pockets and resew.

The bottom hem has been left fairly long underneath to allow for the rapid growth of a 2 year old boy! Folded and ready for Spring.

Although they aren’t perfect, I am happy with my first ever attempt at refashioning something into something else.

I am… satisfied.

May Photo Challenge – 18. something you made

There are oodles of things around me I have made, most of them though have been for my children. This pincushion was the first thing I sewed for myself and I love it. I use it nearly daily, so it’s USEFUL and I LOVE the combination of colours and patterns. Everyone needs a pincushion that makes them happy.