The latest winter trousers. One of my grand-daughters really doesn't want to wear trousers - she's sooner wear a dress every day, no matter the weather - preferably as close to a tutu as possible. This makes her parents despair, as it gets colder and colder. Ok, then, I thought, I'll try and make you a really feminine pair of trousers that will keep your warm! She loved this vaguely Parisian fabric, and I'm pleased to say, she has worn the trousers I made from it, albeit oftentimes with a dress over the top. But at least her knees aren't getting frostbite!
To find out more about making cosy warm trousers for winter, read on!
And to prove it, here she is, learning to ice-skate in the trousers at the Christmas Ice Rink at Hampton Court Palace..
I made four pairs in the end, the pretty feminine one for Jane's birthday, and three others, one for each of the three older girls including Jane.
For the most part, I used the Jereli pattern I've used so often in the past. Thanks to Toni-Maree, who provided it. It's supposed to be for PJs, but I've found it works really well for these double layered outdoor trousers too. And for the most part, I also used the method I found on the Shwin and Shwin reversible trousers (but not their pattern, as it's small, and for knits). I always make them long enough to have a decent turn-up, which can be reduced as the child grows, until it isn't turned up at all!
If there is an outside leg seam, you sew that first, then you sew the bottom of both layers together:
Then, you sew up the inside leg seam.
At this point, I usually turn them through, so you have two legs, thus:
You can see one leg is turned up experimentally.
Then I pin and sew the curve of the crutch seam of the outer layer from waist to waist. Shwin and Shwin do this before turning the linings through, giving what looks like a very long legged pair of trousers, but as long as you take care not to sew through the linings as well, my method works fine, too.
To sew the crutch seam of the lining, you have then to do it in two halves - from the front waist to just past the inside leg seams, and then pull it through to go from the back waist seam to just past your previous seam (so they overlap by a few stitches).
Shwin and Shwin add a separate waistband. I don't. I make the body part of the trousers high enough at the waist to not need to do that. I first sew a seam about 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" below the top edge, then press the seam allowance inwards, and sew very close to the folded edge, leaving a gap through which to thread the elastic. (Usually 3/4" or 20 mm.)
After threading the elastic, I close up the rest of the top seam, adding in a little tab at the back.
I have finished pictures of most of these three pairs:
Jane's birthday pair, the Parisian-print linen with a peacock blue fleece lining (Note the pattern matching - I'm proud of that!):
Rose's animal print fleece, with spotty cotton linings:
Unfortunately, in spite of the tab at the back, Rose has chosen to wear hers back to front, which is why they look a bit baggy in the picture below!
As you may be able to see, I made this pair using a different pattern, the Basic Kids Pants pattern by Made. I don't remember why, perhaps I just thought I'd give it a try. It's a nice pattern (and excellent tutorials) but only comes in a size 2-3, so it's become too small for my needs. You can see that I pinned both front and back together on the fabric, to avoid a side seam, by cutting round the two together. Normally if you did this, you would overlap them because you wouldn't need the seam allowance, but I suspect that Fleur was probably already a bit big for this pattern. So I didn't overlap, and I almost certainly added to the length before cutting. (This girl just keeps growing!)
Wish I'd had picture of them finished, even better, being worn, but I'm sure she's now outgrown them. That'll teach me to take more photos!
All of these are theoretically reversible, but the girls seem to love the fleecy lining inside in the cold days when they can go skating.
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