Upcycled Fleece Pants for Baby

My husband tried to throw away this fleece jacket two or three times and I kept taking it out of the garbage.  Reduce, Reuse and Recycle I keep telling him.  I decided that I would make a pair of fleece pants for Kessie.  She will be 7 months old on Wednesday and will be crawling soon.  She needs something to keep those cute little legs warm this winter on my cold floors.  I hope you can use this tutorial for ideas for your little one.  I think I will be making the dog a winter coat out of the remainder of the fleece jacket, and who knows what else!

I started by placing a pair of sweat pants that fit Kessie now and made a pattern on two pieces of 8 1/2 x 11 paper taped together end to end. 

I traced around them and allowed a 1/2" seam on each side, an inch at the top and the bottom to allow for elastic. Then cut the pattern out.

 

I used the sleeves of the jacket and placed the straight side of the pant leg on the fold of the fabric and only cut the top, bottom, crotch and inside seam out of the fabric. You can cut out around the entire pattern if you are using another portion of the jacket. 

Place right sides of the fabric together and sew the inside leg seams together using a 1/2" seam allowance.

Trim seams to 1/4" and zig-zag.  If you have a serger, it would be perfect to use for this project.

Turn one of the legs right side out and slide it into the other leg.  Match seams in the crotch and up each side of the front and rear seam, pin and stitch using a 1/2" seam allowance.

I always double stitch the crotch seam.  This is something that I learned from my Grandmother and it sure has saved some embarrasment a time or two.

Again, trim the seam to 1/4" and zig-zag.
You may want to try it on your little one at this point to make sure that it is not too long waisted.  It is easier to make the adjustment before you turn down the top for the elastic encasement.


Zig-Zag the around the top edge of the waist and the bottom edge of each pant leg.  Turn under 1" at the waist and 3/4" on each pant leg.  Stitch around each using a straight stitch.  Leave an opening of about an inch to be able to feed the elastic through.

I used 3/4" wide elastic for the waist and 1/2" wide for the ankles.  Feed the elastic through the opening using a safety pin.  Try on your little one, or measure their waist and ankles if that is easier.

 Draw the elastic up to the correct length, pin or hold together and zig-zag back and forth several times to hold toghether.  Trim, feed into the pants and stitch the opening closed.

I added hot pink bows to each leg and the waist to give them some color and make them more girly.  I think they are cute with the hot pink onesie and hairbow.  Now that I think about it, I may have to make her a raglan sleeve jacket out of the remainder of the fabric.  Poor doggy.  He may have to go cold a little longer.