Pants on the ground

The middle grandchild has a fit problem with his clothing, specifically his pants. Much like his older sister, he has long slender limbs and tiny little acorns for his buns. That means if pants fit his waist, they are clam diggers, and if they’re long enough, he has to grab a fistful of material at the back of his waist so they don’t fall down. Well, that’s just no way to live especially since its winter and the boy needs pants he can wear.

I offered to sew up some pants so my DIL sent his measurements. According to the sizing chart, he wears a ½ T – keep in mind that pattern sizes are based solely on body measurements and have nothing to do with the sizes you see in retail stores – but needs more length in the pant legs. So I cut out a pair of what ended up being shorts to act as a fitting muslin for the little guy. If they fit, I’ll whip up another, long pair and anyway summer will get here someday. I lined the pockets for fun and used the same contrasting material to make the casing for elastic in the waist.

I made the shorts from Simplicity 2907, which is out of print now. I’ll make his long pair out of them too, I just won’t do the seams across the knees. That seam would bug me so why inflict potential irritation on him.

I also whipped up a yoga mat bag for myself. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and have had the pattern cut out for a couple of weeks. But it’s so cold and the dining room (which is also our sewing room) has just been uncomfortable to work in. This is from McCall’s 4261 which I bought for $1 from the remainder table at my favorite fabric store in Boston. All that was left was a huge size but that’s OK, all I wanted was the bag pattern.

As is often the case, I sort of ignored the directions and lined the bag with fabric and batting so it’s stronger, made my own strap (seriously, the pattern called for a yard of 1 inch wide webbing – that’s like calling for a can of cream of chicken soup in a recipe. Just make the damn white sauce already), and also my own drawstring instead of a purchased cord.