New Grandma Wants to Sew!: Two pieces of children's clothing from a metre of fabric? (Part 1

Travelling through Anchorage, Alaska, I found a lovely fabric shop called Quilted Raven. (Lucky folk in Anchorage! 7 fabric stores in town and two more up at Eagle River.) I picked up two pieces of fabric, one an offcut just over a metre long (by the standard 114cm wide - or 44-45 inches), and the other, I just bought a metre. (Come to think of it, as it was US, it was probably a yard they sold me.) I could have bought so many more pieces, I loved the fabrics, but I was limited as to the amount of extras I could bring home to the UK. Thank goodness I didn't have time to visit all the other shops, or I'd have been seriously overweight on my luggage!

Once home, I had to plan out what I could make for the girls. As I'd only managed to bring home two pieces of fabric, I had to get two garments out of each. Here are the first two, from fabric 1, called Bear Mountain.

Long pants for the toddler, Ada, and a playsuit for Fleur. To find out more, read on.

First, the toddler pantss for Ada. For these, I used my all-time favourite pants pattern, from Suzi. I like this pattern because it is higher in the back than the front, and the back crutch seam is longer.

Actually, this pattern is for 6 months old, and Ada is now 14 months. However, as Suzy says, it is quite easy to adapt the pattern. The legs and the crutch seam can be made longer, and you don't need much adjustment to the width, babies grow a lot in length but not very much sideways in the first 18 months. The pattern I used was a version I had cut myself from the 6 month one, a few years ago, aimed at about 12 to 18 months - Ada's older sister and cousins all had some pants from this.

I knew I would not have enough fabric left to get full length trousers, so I went for some long shorts with turn-ups. Eventally the turnups could be dropped down to make longer trousers if required.

After cutting out the main pieces (two backs and two fronts) I joined a back to each front to make a whole leg. Before completing the other seams, I wanted to add the turnups at this stage.

I had decided on a deep turn-up, of about 1 1/4" . So the fabric to make the turn-up needed to by 4 times as deep this, plus seam allowance of 3/8" on each side (i.e. 5 3/4"). Before attaching it, I folded and pressed both seam allowances and the fold which would form the top edge of the turn-up. I didn't cut the turn-up pieces to the appropriate width until after I'd attached them, as you can see here. I wanted to be sure I made them wide enough. I couldn't just follow the line of the legs downwards, as they were becoming narrower towards the bottom, and the turn-ups would turn back up over a wider part of the leg. By leaving the extra material at each side I could play with the width until I was happy. The finished width ended up just under 13" on these shorts. Below, the turn-up is attached at the seam allowance on the outside on the leg bottom. (They were sewn right sides together in other words, then pressed.)

The right side, after trimming. It's hard to see on the picture, but the shaping of the ends of the turn-up fabric has resulted from me folding it up as it would be with the turn-ups finished and turned up!

Here the inside is folded back up. (Sorry this picture shows it before the turn-up was trimmed.) It will be sewn in that position shortly. But there's something you can do before that happens.

Now, this next bit is not strictly necessary, but I thought it would look nice. I wanted to add little tabs to hold the turn-ups up. (The turn-ups turn up on themselves - that's why they are cut 4 times as deep as the finished cuff.)

So first I made two little tabs which were c 4" long by 2 1/4" wide. (I started with them slightly longer than 4" and shortened by trial and error before attaching them.) I folded these lengthways right sides together, and sewed a seam down the open edge at 3/8", then turned them out the right way with the aid of a safety pin. (You can maybe see at the bottom of the next picture that I had previously pressed the end hem, as it is always easier to tuck in with a crease line.)

Then I tucked the end in, and over-sewed that end and both sides of the tab. (The right one is over-sewn, the left one is yet to be done.)

Next, I attached them on the inside of the long shorts / pants. The raw edge ends are attached just within the seam allowance of the turn-up - you can see below that they are attached just above the seam joining the turn up to the leg.

Here, you can see the same thing with the turn-up opened out so you can see where it has been attached to.

Next, I did the outside leg seams right down to the cuffs, then turned up the inside of the cuffs, sewing these close to the original seam allowance.

Now I had two separate completed legs. Now to join them together. I put one of them right side out inside the other, which was wrong side out. Matching the legs seams, you can then pin the crutch seam together and sew it all the way from the back waist to the front - or vice versa. (I finished all exposed seams with a small zigzag stitch.)

Then the cuffs were folded up, and I attached the tabs with a button to hold the turned up cuffs in place. You could make a proper button hole, or use snap fasteners, but I was after an easier life, so I sewed the buttons on right through the tabs and the side seam of the trousers. It will be easy to lengthen them if required by snipping the button off and re-attaching lower down. I turned the waistband 1/4" and 1" and sewed it, leaving a gap for inserting elastic. I also used the opportunity to add in a little tag of ribbon to mark the back.

And finally, once the elastic was inserted, I closed the gap, and the shorts were ready to be tried on.

By the time Ada's Mummy and I tried them on her, she'd just eaten a massive lunch. So her little tummy was full to bursting, and the shorts sat very low - so low, they defintely look more like trousers than long shorts. Still, everyone is happy. They can be hoicked up a bit when she's not so full!

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