Made It: Toddler Yoga Pants

Cruising the Salvation Army this week, I found several sections of semi-awesome to awesome fabrics in their stash there.  I think I brought home about 6 or 7 rolls of varying lengths of fabric.One of the less fantastico, but more practical selections was a very lightweight heather grey jersey knit.  Perfect for some sweet yoga pants for a tiny boy!

I had this tutorial on the backburner, just waiting for when I had some appropriate fabric, and now is the time.  They really are as easy as she says they are.  The only possibly tricky part is measuring the waist of a child who has just recently learned how to suck his tummy in and doesn't like the cold measuring tape on his bare sensitive skin!

I think these pants had a total of 5 seams to stitch.  (I had a coordinating thread in my serger so I serged the edges, but it's probably not necessary.)

1) Making sure the stretch goes side-to-side instead of up and down, use a pair of pants that currently fits to trace a rough pattern of the legs.  EXCEPT for these pants, just do a straight wide leg.  Don't taper!

Like so:

2) Measure and cut waistband.  This will be a rectangle of 10 inches tall by (waist + 1 inch) wide.  The waist measurement is the stretchy way.  For Charlie this was 18 + 1 = 19 inches.  This was the tricky measuring, because the first rectangle I cut was only 16 inches and barely fit around his waist!

3) Fold in half, right sides together, and sew the waist band on the small (10 inch) side.

4) Right sides together, sew each leg from crotch down.

5) This part is also slightly tricky.  Put one leg inside out and one leg right side out.  Slip the right side out leg inside the inside out leg, and match up the "U" shapes.  I'm sorry if these instructions are confusing and mangled.  Pin, check Samster Mommy's instructions again to see if they're clearer, then sew.

6) Waistband time!  Fold the rectangular tube so that it is only 5 inches tall, right side out, and pin to the top of the pants (which you have also turned right side out), lining up the open unfolded end of the rectangle with the top opening of the pants.  Sew!

Honestly, I thought I would be able to explain it better than that.  But it's late and I'm feeling like my brain is a bit more mushy than usual.  Here are some pics of Charlie modeling with a frog book and a cookie cutter.

Something extra awesome about these pants: You could definitely make something VERY similar for yourself or another big person if you had more fabric and were so inclined.  Easy peasy!

Cost breakdown:  $2.49 for 1m of fabric (I suppose I'm assuming you have the machine to pull this off, and thread is negligible.  You could probably hand sew it if you had to...)