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Sunday, January 7, 2007

Making over Pants for girls

Our family has chosen to live in such a way that conveys our beliefs as much as possible just by first glance. One of the ways, then, is for girls to dress modestly and femininely, in skirts or dresses. Sometimes, though, other family members will buy our girls pants, or I will find very cute sweater sets that come with pants on the clearance rack. I especially love corduroy as it is durable and warm, so the thought of either giving away or throwing away part of an outfit (especially by the company whose kids' clothes are OK ;-) feels like waste.

I have found a way to turn those pants into a skirt, still modest and durable, with very little effort. This is a great way to use those over-alls that are so cute without compromising femininity. Below are the directions. I will include pictures when I have them.

1. Have child try on pants and decide on desired length. Cut legs off at one inch BELOW this line. Save legs.

2. Cut the inside seam out of the pants, staying as close to the seam as possible. This will create an open-legged pair of shorts.

3. Cut the inside and outside seams from one of the pantlegs, staying as close to the seam as possible.

4. Using Heat and Bond or Stitch Witchery, fold and iron a seam for the bottom of each leg of the shorts.

5. On just ONE SIDE of the middle front seam, cut up one inch. Do this also on the middle seam in the back. Turn shorts inside-out.

6. Cut thin strips of bonding agent and fold over material to create a bonded seam up the front on both sides (the one-inch slit will allow you to fold the actual sewn seam to one side and iron it flat). Repeat on back of shorts. You should now have a pair of shorts with no inseam, but with bonded hems and seams around the entire bottom inch of material.

7. Cut a large piece of bonding agent to just 1/4' smaller than saved pantleg. Trim the middle triangle out of the bonding agent and proceed to iron 'patch' to inside of shorts, using the original hem as your bottom seam. Place patch about 1/2' above bottom hem of shorts to create a dart or pleat look. Iron fully.

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