Cosy Harem Pants for Your Baby From Your Old Jerseys!

Making kids clothing is a great way to reuse old woollens that have lost their shape or got holes. I used a lovely cashmere jumper that had loads of holes and has slightly felted too.

This instuctable tells you how to measure your baby and make a pattern for pants that you can use over and over!

Fabric: Any somewhat stretchy fabric will do for this project. Woollen knits, tracksuit jersey, T-shirt jersey, fleece, even stretchy denim could work. (it needs to be stretchy because there is no crotch seam in this super simple pattern)

Elastic (1/2 inch or wider), long enough to go round your babies waist (and optionally around ankles too) (about 35 inches for an 18 month old)

Thread for your sewing machine or darning wool.

Kit:

Sewing machine (you can hand-sew too- it just takes a little bit longer)

Sewing needle and pins

Sharp Scissors

Unpicker (for mistakes or for unpicking the cuffs you want to reuse it)

Pencil/pen

A3 Paper/ newspaper or kitchen baking paper

Tape measure

Get a tape measure or use string and a ruler if you don't have one and measure up your compliant child.

A: Waist

Start by locating their belly button and go slightly above this to measure their waist circumference.

This is measurement A in the picture and you'll take most of the other measurements from here.

My baby is 7 months old but has an unusually large belly (22 inches!) hence having to custom make his clothes.

B: Crotch

Hold the end of the tape under your child's back at the level of the waist where you took measurement A.

Bring the tape between their legs over the fullest part of their nappy up to the front of their waist and measure to the waistline.

This was about 15 inches in my baby but you can see that when I took the photo I was using the wrong end of the measure so couldn't read it off properly

C: Leg

Hold their ankle and trap the end of the tape under your fingers so that its level with their ankle. Use that hand to pull their leg straight while you measure the distance up to their waistline.

This was 13 inches in my baby

D: Ankle circumference

This measurement is actually taken slightly above their ankle so it's more of a lower leg circumference really.

Just loop the tape around the leg and read off the measurement. (7.5 inches in my case)

Get a piece of paper that is a bit longer than your child's leg measurement. So my baby's leg is 13 inches so I couldn't quite fit it on an A4 piece of paper, I had to use A3, or else kitchen baking parchment is a good option.

Do some maths :0

Take your measurements and add some extra for seams then divide the total to make a half leg shape.

A: Waist. Add 6 inches then divide the total by 4. In my case that was 22 + 6 = 28, then divide by 4 = 7 inches.

B: Crotch. Add 1 inch the divide by 2. e.g 15 +1 = 16, then divide by 2 = 8 inches.

C Leg length. Add 1 inch e.g. 13 + 1 = 14 inches

D Ankle circumference. Add 3 inches then divide by 2. e.g. 7 + 3 = 10, then divide by 2 = 5 inches.

Start in the top right of the paper and mark out the waist measurement along the top edge and the crotch measurement along the right hand side. This should mean that there is a right angle (90 degrees) where the waist and crotch meet in the top right corner.

Next mark out the leg length from the side of the waist. When drawing this line, angle it outwards so that it slopes away from the crotch as it descends. Mine flared out about an inch and a half from vertical by the time it reached the ankle. You could curve it outwards slightly to make them really baggy pants.

From the bottom of the leg line (C), mark out the ankle measurement (D). Make this line horizontal (parallel to the waist).

Finally join the ankle line (D) to the crotch line (B) by a gently curving line which will form the crotch. If this crotch line (E) is too straight the seam will be under a lot of strain and may split. If its too curvy at the top it might be a bit tight around the thighs unless you've made a curvy leg seam that bulges out too.

Hooray. That's the tricky bit over.

Cut your shape out.

The crotch line (B) will need to be placed on a fold in the fabric so that you cut it out with its mirror image. Alternatively you can cut a mirror image out of paper and sellotape it to your pattern along the crotch line so you will have a pattern for the whole front of the pants if that's easier for you.

It'll be much easier if you iron your fabric, or get it as flat as possible.

Remember that your pattern is the front half of one leg.

Important: The crotch line (B) of your pattern must be placed on a fold so that you cut through two layers of fabric all round your pattern and finish with your pattern shape plus its mirror image. This will be the front of your pants. Repeat and you will have the back piece too. They will be essentially U shapes.

Choosing which bits of your jumper:

Holes: My jumper had an annoying hole right in the centre so I used my pattern over the side seams. This meant that the pants had a seam already along the crotch line which was annoying. If it hadn't been for the hole I'd have placed my pattern right in the centre of the main jumper, and cut through the front and back pieces.

Cuffs: Re-using cuffs can save a whole load of sewing and they look good too. You can place your pattern so that either the waist or leg lines lie on a cuff. If you are going to do this you might need to shorten your pattern accordingly or maybe plan to turn the cuff over. I decided to use the bottom of my jumper as the waist line and as I turned it under to make the elastic casing I allowed a bit extra and placed my pattern starting about an inch from the edge of the jumper. Remember that if you use the side seams like I did, they will look bad if you turn the waist line over so that the cuff faces out. That's why I turned mine in when I made the casing.

If you use the centre of the jumper, like in the illustration, it's easier to snip the side seams open and cut off the sleeves so you can fold the front and back bits nice and flat and place the pattern on the fold.

Necklines and other features: you could try to incorporate pockets, embellishments or other features of your t-shirt or jumper.

Ankle band/ waistband:

Depending on whether you plan to re-use the original cuffs as waistbands or ankle bands when you cut out your fabric pieces, you may or may not need to cut some extra, straight pieces of fabric to create the elastic casing at the waist and maybe the ankles too.

These can be cut out of a separate jumper/ t-shirt if you want.

Use the waist (A) and Ankle (D) measurement you took in Step 1, and if you are using elastic, measure the width of the elastic.

Waist band: Cut 1 strip of fabric the length of the waist measurement (A) plus 5 inches, and twice the width of your elastic plus 1 inch. In my case the elastic is 1/2 inch wide and my baby's waist is 22 inches so my strip would be 27 inches by 2 inches. This is quite long so I would probably need to join two shorter strips together to achieve the final length. In fact I just allowed an 1 1/2 inches extra at the top of my pattern and re-used the waistband of my jumper which I turned under to create the elastic casing.

Ankle band: Cut 2 rectangles of fabric the length of your child's ankle (D) plus an inch, and twice the width of your elastic plus 1 inch. If you aren't using elastic just make it 2 inches wide. My baby's ankles are 7 inches round so I cut a piece with the stripes going in the opposite direction to the main legs and they were 8 inches long by 2 inches wide. Alternatively, if you place your pattern on a cuff, allow a bit extra so you can use the cuff and turn it over or under.

Take the front pieces and back pieces and place then right sides together.

Match up all the edges and pin.

Use a 'jersey' needle in your machine if you have one and a stretch stitch if you have one.

If hand sewing, use a short back stitch.

Sew along just under 1/2 inch from the edge

Sew up the leg seams on each side. Trim to 1/4 inch then using a wide zig zag on your machine (or a blanket stitch if hand-sewing), sew the edge of the fabric in the seam allowance to neaten it up.

Repeat for the crotch seam.

This is the option I used and involves the least sewing and minimal bulky seams.

I basically turned the top inch under at the waistband and stitched the edge down to form a casing to thread the elastic through.

If you used the cuff at the ankle you could use this method for the ankle hem too.

I have a nice cuff edging so I didn't need to turn the hem under as it wouldn't unravel. however I had to turn the cuff inside the pants so that the old side seam that I had running down my crotch line wasn't turned out in the front of the pants. If this seam hadn't been there I would have turned the cuff to the outside of the pants.

I measured the elastic width (1/2 inch) and turned down almost an inch from the waistline to the inside of the pants. This gave me plenty of lee way for wobbly stitching and for the elastic to slide through nicely. I pinned the fold down and started stitching at the back but when I got around to the back again I left a small opening (about an inch or so.

I used a medium wide zigzag stitch to sew the edge of the casing down.

I cut a piece of elastic 2 inches shorter (20 inches) than the waist measurement (A) of my baby (22 inches). See step 1

Attach a safety pin to the end of the elastic and pin the other end near the opening in the casing. Thread the safety pin into the casing and use its stiffness to help you push the elastic right through the casing. Since it is a fair bit shorter than your pant casing, you need to gather the casing as you go and make sure the pinned end doesn't escape into the casing too.

Once the safety pin is through the opening again, attach it to the other end of the elastic and check that the elastic is lying flat (no twists) within the casing. One you are happy, sew the two ends of the elastic together.

You can do this by butting up the ends and zigzagging widely over them or you can overlap them and sew straight. Tuck the elastic back into the casing and finish by completing the casing seam with the zigzag.

I used this method for the ankle hem, but it can equally be used for the waist too.

This method creates a fairly bulky seam (3 layers of fabric).

To Make the band.

Take the 2 rectangles of fabric for the ankle band or the strip you cut for the waistband in step 3.

Fold them right sides together along their length and straight stitch about 1/2 inch from the short edge to form a loop. Open the seam and squash it flat. Fold the loop in half around its circumference, wrong sides together so that the flattened seam is trapped inside and stitch a couple of stitches right at the edge to hold the seams flat open and the loop folded nicely in half. You could press it with an iron instead if you have one to hand.

Turn the pants inside out and place the ankle bands into the leg hole with the edges of the band matching the edges of the leg. I also aligned the seam to the back of the pants.

The band is somewhat smaller than the leg hole so you'll need to distribute the extra leg fabric evenly around the ankle band and pin at about 4 places. As you sew you'll need to stretch and manoeuvre this extra fabric in between each pin.

The waistband is attached in exactly the same way.

If you are using elastic (I didn't use elastic for the ankle bands), cut a piece of elastic that is 3/4 inch shorter than the ankle circumference measurement (D) (Step 1).

If this is a waistband cut elastic that is 2 inches shorter than your child's waist circumference measured in Step 1.

Sew with a straight stretch stitch about 1/2 inch from the edge, Leave a gap to thread elastic through if using, (See previous step and close the seam once the elastic is in.). Trim the seam to 1/4 inch and zigzag the 3 fabric edges together.

Of course you could just turn a hem under at the ankles and stitch it down without any extra cuff/ elastic or whatever.

Turn your pants the right way out and admire!