Matching baby pants from scraps

I recently made a crossover apron for my great niece (see this post). From the back, these aprons always look cute with a pairs of matching knickers underneath. (Though they work well with jumpers underneath, and tights or leggings, in colder weather.) I had a new (Spanish) pattern I wanted to try, a free PDF, so in this post I'll tell you how I got on. Here is the end result, together with the matching apron. I should add that I had only tiny amounts of the matching fabrics left, really just the leftovers, hence the title of this post!

The pattern I used was this one, from Craft and Mama. Although the main web site is in Spanish, there is an English version of the free PDF and instructions available. You have to register (as is mostly the case nowadays) but then you can download the pattern free. It met with my basic standard for pants in that the back and front were separate patterns (i.e. not identical), and it had  fabric to go under the crutch. However, in the end I am not recommending using that particular pattern as it is, as it is far too small. Later, I'll give you alternative suggestions. I did contact the pattern's author to comment that the actual pattern seemed too small. For example, the written text asked you to use elastic pieces for the legs (said to be 34 cm) that were actually quite a lot longer than the leg holes, which would be about 29 cm. So perhaps the pattern was not printing big enough? However, the author thought it was more likely there was a typing mistake in the length of the elastic, and that the pattern was correct. I don't agree, as you'll see!

It did look rather small. So I used the largest size, i.e. 12-24 months, even though the baby will only be 9 months old (and was extremely premature). There wasn't a reference square or line. I always prefer that PDF patterns do include one, as it enables you to see if you might need to scale up or down a bit, depending on your printer. However, I just went for it. Surely the largest size would be OK?

I knew before I started I was going to have to juggle quite a bit with fabric, as the scraps of fabric I had left over after the apron were really small. Here's how I had to cut the pieces. (I curved the top up a bit in the centre back compared with the actual pattern for more room round the butt. For the main shell of the outer, I used the floral fabric from the apron._

Firstly, instead of cutting the front and back pieces on the fold, as per the pattern, I had to use two separate pieces for each, with a centre seam front and back. So I had to add 1/4" to the centre line of each pattern piece to allow for the fabric taken up by the centre seam. And in fact, for the back, I didn't even have large enough pieces to do this from top to bottom. But I did have one long strip about 3 1/2" wide. So I used that for the top of the back. Again, I had to allow an extra 1/4" on each piece for the horizontal seam. Actually, this was OK, because I wanted to insert a frill anyway. On the horizontal seam in the picture below, you may just be able to see a little of the frill edge poking out (it's yellow).

Fortunately, I had another pink fabric (the polka dots you can see in some of the photos below) which I could use as a lining. Again, it was a left over scrap, but with enough to cut each of the front and back out of a single piece with no joins. Pants don't have to be lined, but because of the number of seams and raw edges I would have, I did line them fully.

Having joined the centre seams of the outer fabric, I then added in a frill of remaining scraps of the balloon fabric to the back. I had pieced lots of scraps on the bias to make double fold bias tape to bind the legs (see below), and some of that, ironed out to make a singly folded strip of fabric, formed the frill. If you wanted to make such a frill, you need a strip at least 1 and a quarter times the width of the knicker back in length - mine was slightly more - by at least 2 and a half inches deep, then you press it folded lengthwise wrong sides together. I gathered it up to fit by sewing (on the longest stitch length on my machine) a gathering thread close to the raw edges. Then I inserted it between the top and bottom half of the back (right sides together) and sewed them together as in the photo above. I then pressed the raw edges up (away from the frill) and over-sewed close to the edge to keep the frill neat. Below, you can see the inserted frill. You don't have to make the frill on the bias - I was using what scraps I had! The finished frill was about 1" deep.

Having got the front and back made, and the lining cut, I sewed up the crutch seam. This was the point at which I realised this garment was going to be far too small to fit anything other than a doll. The elastic measurement was much bigger than what the circumference of the leg holes would be. But having cut all of this out, and sewed it so far, I was quite determined I was going to make these matching knickers if it killed me.

They were not going to be wide enough, or tall enough. The height wasn't so much of a problem - I still had enough of the balloon fabric in scraps to piece together a taller than normal waistband. More about this later. 

The leg holes were tiny (I tried them on my own grand-daughter, who is admittedly a little older than the intended recipient will be at Christmas, but it was plain they would need to be enlarged. So I did two things. Firstly, I scooped them out a bit more - I took off a good 3/8" all round. That was fair enough, because adding bias tape for the elastic would reduce the circumference anyway. Secondly, I added in further strips to the side seams (of both the lining and the outer fabric): strips of balloon fabric on the outside.......

..... and strips of the floral fabric on the inside.

(These photos were taken later, after I'd pretty much completed the knickers bar the elastic.)

So I now had a back and a front, joined at the crutch, and at the side seams by the extra side strips, and the same for the lining. The lining and the outer were placed wrong sides together, and I started pinning my bias strips round the leg holes. I sewed the bias tape first to the inside and then folded it over to sew the outside.

I did the same with the waistband (which was not cut on the bias, as it doesn't have to get round such tight curves as the legs). It measured (in length) the same as the finished waistband plus about 1" (for the back seam), and was about 3" deep - so the finished depth is about 1 1/4" after taking into account the seam allowance.

So these are the finished pants before insertion of the elastic. The leg elastic was threaded through the conventional way. I'd left a small gap when sewing the second side of the bias binding, and threaded the elastic with a pin, joined the ends of the elastic, and then hand-sewed the gap closed. You'll see I still didn't get much gathering round the legs, but I think they'll be OK. 

For the waistband, it was fractionally more complicated. I sewed the waistband round completely, but then I partially opened up the centre back seam of the waistband (on the inner side). Next, I sewed a second circle of stitching about half and inch from the top of the waistband. Then I threaded the elastic through the opened up centre back seam, above this new stitching line, and, as before, sewed the elastic ends together, then hand-sewed the back seam up to close it over the elastic.

Probably the most fiddly pair of knickers I've ever made! Part of this was due to their having to be made of a patchwork of the scraps of fabric I had left from the apron project, and partly because this pattern was just too small.

I'd recommend that if you use this pattern, you print it much bigger than actual size. I'll be contacting the author again now they are complete, with what I found, so see if she would rectify the problem (perhaps by including a reference size square). Alternatively, you can go to the tried and tested Dana's Perfect Diaper Cover pattern.