Happy pants dance!

My older son (age 3) needed some new pants. He wears cloth diapers. Apparently, after age 2, most clothing companies seem to assume that either all boys are potty trained or that they all wear super-thin disposable diapers, because finding pants that will fit over the cloth diaper bulb has become increasingly challenging. Then add this to the fact that it is nigh impossible to buy pants at this time of year (it seems that one can only purchase pants from about July through January... then it's all shorts, all the time).

So I decided to try and make him a pair of pants (keep in mind, my last attempt at pants did not work out so well). During the baby's naptime the other day, I managed to sneak into the sewing room for a couple hours and put a pair together.


So quick and easy! I used Kwik Sew pattern 3211 in a size T4. I actually started by making a muslin to make sure they would fit over the diaper bulb. The muslin (which I did indeed make out of muslin) seemed to fit well, if a little loose. I figured since I was using denim for the real thing, that the thickness of the denim would compensate for the looseness. As it turns out, these are a little on the big side (oddly enough, they fit looser than the muslin did), but not so large that he can't wear them.

I also made a couple modifications to the pattern. The pattern includes some funky knee pleat inserts. I left those out. And then I added the pockets (I took them from another pattern, Simplicity 2907). I also shortened the pants by about 1". Then I also decided to break out my machine embroidery attachment and add some airplane flair using a design from Designs by Juju (it is in the "Things That Go" applique set).


That was pretty exciting as I do not make use of that attachment nearly as much as I should (considering how much it cost). Doing this little bit of embroidery really makes me want to make use of it more often. So I count that as a good thing.

Here's a back view:



And here is a very happy boy, wearing his new pants:


And, best of all, he LOVES them!