Making jeans

Lets face it.  As much as we love sewing dresses and seeing our little girls in them, they really live in pants.  And, if you are sewing for boys, pants are truly your main option for bottoms.

So, having a great go-to pants pattern is essential for daily-wear sewing projects.  But, that can seem a little boring.  And, you don't want to make the exact same pant over and over again.

You can always buy a new pattern (and we do want to support Indie designers and others that design for tweens) but our wallets can only handle so much.  Acknowledging this reality, I dedicated this post to showing how a change in fabric and technique can really change up the look of your standard pant.

Last year I reviewed the BurdaStyle dyed pant (After sewing so many burdastyle patterns I decided to be an affiliate and their add is on our page).  It is a great skinny jean pattern with professional finishes (though the instructions leave something to be desired).

Burda's Girl's Dyed Pant 02/2013

They were Abi's favorite pant that I made so she requested new ones with a few adjustments.  She asked for a pair to have wider ankles, a modified boot cut, and one with more straight legs.

The first new pair I made was out of a white stretch denim.  Not the most practical of pant material for a child, but they have held up well over the last 3 months.  I simply cut the pant more straight by not following the curves and then added some fancy top stitching with metallic thread to make them more special.

These are simple adjustments and she loves the jeans.

(excuse the Christmas decor, please)

Next, I made some that were inspired by motorcycle riding pants.  On these, I uses some faux leather scraps to create accents on the pockets and fancy buttons to dress them up.

The changes I did to the pattern was to lengthen the leg and use some of her boot cut pants as an outline for the last 4 inches of the leg.  That seemed to do the trick though she wants them wider next time.  I also modified the technique for making built in knee patches that I learned from the blog MADE.  Basically I cut out the knee portion of the pattern for the front of the leg and basted it to the top of the front legs before sewing.  Then, I top stitched at angles with a thick top stitching thread to give the moto look.  Abi and I love this look and it is very practical for your rough and tumble kids.

I use variations of this technique on all of my younger boy's pants.

What do you do to change up your pants patterns?  Do you have a favorite pattern for boys or girl pants?