Life is in the Details

Early Summer Recap

Family, friends, crafting, gardening, and just enjoying the outdoors.  It's been great so far!

Cute Little Pants

I'm interrupting my Summer recap for a recent project.  I saw this pattern for little pants a few months ago on Soulemama's blog and just fell in love.  They are from Anna Marie Horner's latest book, Handmade Beginnings, which is filled with adorable and fairly easy patterns, that even someone who has not sewn in years can figure out pretty easily. They are reversible pants! How perfect for any potential baby stains? Adorable and practical!

But at the time I saw them, back in July, I really didn't even consider making them. I was far too preoccupied with my handspun and knitting to even think about it.  Until a couple weekends ago, when I spent a Sunday morning looking at baby things to make for my sister Kim's new baby due at the end of September.  Which then led me to an afternoon of surfing fabric websites, particularly fabric websites with Japanese fabric! I'm completely infatuated with Japanese fabric! I figured I would get some of the adorable fabric, sew a square of it on to a onesie and then trim a burp cloth or something with matching fabric, easy and simple, right?

Wrong. 

Enter my friend Ana with her innocent suggestion, 'Wouldn't it be so much cuter to make matching pants instead?!?'.  Well yes, but how do you make pants?  Is it hard?  I had no idea, I haven't sewn in forever, and I've never made little pants before.  A pair of big paisley pants made from 70s era paisley fabric from my grandmother's closet when I was 13, but then the pattern was me just laying on the fabric and tracing! And that was quite a while ago. But it actually turned out to be a pretty great idea, thanks to this great pattern and no zippers or buttonholes to contend with!

I instantly remembered the reversible pants from the Handmade Beginnings book and I was on the Barnes and Noble website trying to find the closest location that carried the book! My Japanese fabric arrived in the mail, and I matched it up with some cute green dots I found at Pennington Quilt Works. 

 

I have not sewn in a while, and I have not sewn from a pattern  in a long while, but it was very clear and I only had one mishap when I sewed the front legs together.  The little tyke might not like that too much. But I realized it right away, and it was easily fixed.

These pants are truly the cutest article of baby clothing I've ever seen. Wonderful pattern with really just adorable fabric.  A great combination. And when the little pants were all finished, I did sew a piece of matching fabric onto a onesie for a matching outfit! Live and Learn, I should have used some fusible webbing behind the fabric, to avoid the little puckers at the corners.  But the onesies came in a 3 pack, so I'll be trying that again. Maybe. It doesn't look too bad.

I can't wait to see the outfit on the baby.  It's much smaller than it seems in these photos, they're size 0-3 months.   Time to make myself some matching pj pants! My sister and her husband, Mike, are keeping the sex a secret from us, so I hope these are neutral enough. I'm thinking the baby might need a bigger pair of these every few months! Maybe my stepbrother's baby could use a pair too? I'll be known as the Little Pants Lady in my family! Little pants for everyone!! Okay, I think I'm getting ahead of myself!

Off to the lake today to see my sister's first two babes, but first I think I will sew the binding on the patchwork table runner I'm doing. These little pants made me catch a bit of a sewing bug.