Our First Sewing Project Together: Red Fleece Pants

Our child has a pair of pajama pants (aka split crotch pants) that I made for him in this material. For the past little while, he has been choosing his clothing sometimes, and always wants to wear them. Since we try to confine crotchless pants for inside the house, he has been often disappointed. He tries to convince me by saying, "Hole- sew right up" which is how he gets me to mend other items.

Yesterday he came into my sewing area and took this fabric off the shelf for about the tenth time. He doesn't pull anything else off. This time he said, "need pants" and, "sew right up." He pointed to the sewing machine.

I gave in.

So he and I spent the next 40 minutes measuring, cutting, and sewing the pants you see above. I used my favorite pants pattern in size XL (ages 2 to 3) with a 20" piece of 1/4" elastic for the waist (I had been using this size with 18" elastic and these pants are getting a bit tight although the length is still ok). The fleece is from JoAnn's and has little doggies on it.

He sat on the chair as I cut, giving advice like as to which cutting implemet to use. Then he moved to my lap. When I use the machine to sew, he likes to participate by turning it on, putting the presser foot up and down, putting the needle up and down, and cutting the threads each time I pull the fabric out. Yesterday he added helping guide the material through to his repertoire. My machine also has a slider which makes the sewing speed go faster or slower, no matter how hard you push with your foot on the pedal. I let him move that as I was stitching.

I was amazed at his patience. He even let me try them on him twice to adjust the waistband elastic.

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