Thursday, May 5, 2011

My creative space: ripping it off


Seeing that the latest royal wedding dress is fair game for "designers" to copy willy-nilly for their own bridal gown collections (isn't this whole copying concept disturbing?), I really considered nobody would hold it against me for using a pair of Target tracksuit pants in a little pattern drafting and pants experimentation session of my own. 

I found a great tutorial for sewing basic pants for boys using an existing pair of pants as a template.  Actually the MADE blog has a whole section dedicated to sewing for boys - click here to check it out.


After studying the tutorial many times and comparing the shapes I traced from the tracksuit pants to a Burda commercial pattern I eventually bit the bullet and started constructing these pants out of blue cotton drill with contrasting navy exterior pockets (the interior of the front pockets are red, just some fun detail for the wearer). 


I managed to squeeze in one quick try on session with my little man - the sight of the pants bristling with pins made him pretty nervous.  I had the pins on the outside so there would be no ouchies, but it just looks worse like that to a four year old!  The waist looks like it will be touch and go but as this is the final step I won't know till the end if its all OK or not.  Nothing like a bit of a surprise at the finishing line.

After using tracksuit pants as a template to make pants that don't end up looking like tracksuit pants (note distinction from wedding dress situation...), my boy still said to me, "They look like tracksy dacks".  Sigh.

For more creative spaces, head on over to Kootoyoo.

4 comments:

yardage girl said...

Thanks for the tips on boy sewing - I have never done pants for my little mister. Love the pocket detail!

Notchka said...

I'm sure they will be fab - are you doing an elastic waist - thats usually pretty forgiving :)

Jackie @ Fred-and-Cissy said...

Your pants look great, and I'd say that you were 'inspired' by the trakkies not copying them, given the transformation. I've always wondered if I be doing more kid sewing if I had girls, because pants just feel that much more daunting than skirts. Good on you I say!

Seaweed and Raine said...

3 Cheers for having a go! I think they will look fine - adding the elastic totally changes the look of things (well it did earlier this year when I made PJ's for Mr. 3)

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