Saturday, October 1, 2011

Pants

This weekend is all about pants for the boys.

At the start of the year I made shorts especially for my son to wear to kindergarten.  But no, I'm not doing that again now the warm spring weather sees him back wearing shorts.  The reason is "the digging patch" at kinder.  It sounds quaint but it may as well be named "the great big, dirty pit of brown, stinking, staining mud".  It has been totally wrecking havoc on my son's clothes, requiring lots of soaking in buckets, scrubbing and washing to get them clean week by week.  I also expected a pair of newly bought tracksuit pants to last longer than a 10 week kinder term.  I admitted to the kindy teachers that I fully intended to throw his track pants in the bin at the end of the term and they said, "Oh, dont! He's still going to get dirty next term."  That got me thinking about kids and mums and dirt - an often fraught relationship.  The kinder teachers were so right in pointing out that kids need a set of "dirty clothes", something I had lost sight of in this sanitised and clean upbringing that is now the norm - kids need to get dirty, mums need to relax more.

So I've changed my attitude to dirt and washing, am not throwing out the pants, and am not going to be overly fussy in washing them.  I did this:


Trackie shorts! I didn't measure anything, just made sure I cut this bit at the knees off:


You can already tell from the top photo that one leg might be a bit shorter than the other.  I'm banking on nobody noticing that when they're being worn.  I'm going to zig-zag around the raw edge, turn under a centimeter or so and do a double seam to keep it all in place.  And there you have it, shorts for dirt play.

I'm also dying to have a go at making these baby pants from Made by Rae for my new boy.


With some gorgeous planes, trains and cars vintage seersucker that a friend gave to me.


Just now, while the babe is asleep, might be my moment to pin and cut!  I'm off then!

4 comments:

Suz said...

Quick get sewing - I'm sure your windows are few!! Hope you're soaking up the magic of your new bub:)

Bungalowgirl said...

Hearing you on this one,we did an entire year in the mudpit at kindy last year. Two words- brown cords. We have a selection of brown corduroy pants (from Target I think)that conceal such encounters well and have endurance beyond one season. melx

Bron said...

I have done the "cut off" to so many of my little guys trousers. I can't keep up with the knee blow outs!

Yana said...

i guess this is something i have to look forward to (with miss m in the mud). ohh, i've made those tiny pants and they are so cute! looking forward to seeing your newest little man in them :)

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