.::Two Little Chickadees::. The diary of a mama bird trying to keep her nest in order...: April 2010

I love ruffles and I love this style of pants for a little girl! I've seen this style everywhere lately, but have not found a tutorial to make them. I had an old pair of velour pants that were too short for me, so I thought I would refashion them into something my daughter could use. This project was very simple and somewhat quick, even for a beginner like me. I don't own a serger (yet!), so using a pair of my own pants allowed for the bottom hems to maintain a professional look. I'm sure you have an old pair of lounge pants stuffed in the back of a drawer that can be whipped into some cute little pants for your girl.

Note: My daughter is 3/4T, 20" waist and approx. 39" tall, but you can easily adjust this to fit any size.

Here is the before shot. Iron pants to remove any wrinkles and turn inside out before cutting.

Measure how tall you want the ruffle to be. Cut the bottom of each pant leg - Mine are
6 1/4" long (which includes seam allowance).

I used an existing pair of my daughter's pants as a template. Pin the bottom of the pants to accommodate the desired length of the ruffle.

Turn inside out and pin both legs.

Fold pants in half and place flush along the side of one pant leg. Use a pencil to trace the outside of the toddler pants (remember to include a seam allowance). Make sure to include an extra 2" or so at the top of the waistband when tracing. This will later be folded down to encase the elastic waistband.

Take the leg piece you just cut and flip it over. Place along serged edge of opposite pant leg and trace and cut. Make sure you flip the piece over and have a "mirror image", or you will have two of the same pant legs!

These are the pieces you should have:

Now for the sewing!
Sew the pant leg from the bottom to the crotch on each leg, then sew the front and back seam of the pants together. The velour fabric was stretchy, so I used a small zig-zag stictch.

This is what it should look like before you sew the front seam together:

Now gather the top of each "ruffle" piece that will be attached to the bottom of each pant leg. To do this, I set my machine to a long, straight stitch and turned the tension up as high as it would go. This created the gathering for me!