It’s a good feeling to be back at the sewing machine. I’m loving having a little space set up all the time – it makes it so much easier to sneak away and tinker a little during nap time and after dinner. It will be even better when we put a lock on the door and I can stop Elena nicking off with my tape measure!

Elena needs new pants for winter. I usually throw her into a pair of tracksuit pants when the weather is cool, but I feel like a total dag when I do. A few pairs of corduroy pants should fill the gap nicely. As a bonus, I won’t feel bad if they get trashed at childcare. I got the corduroy on special!

I bought the PDF pattern for these pants from The Lily Bird Studio. I chose the pattern because it’s cute, unisex and goes from 12 months to five years. Add the adjustable waistband and I should be able to use this pattern for yonks!

I made Elena the 18 month size which was optimistic. She is 21 months old but tiny. As in: has fallen off the growth charts tiny. The fit of the pants is actually quite good, given that she should probably be in the 12 month size. The elastic cinches them in nicely. I have folded up the legs by about 1.5″ and hand-stitched a hem. I can unpick them when Elena decides it’s time to grow (or, when Hugo needs some pants this time next year. Sorry about the girly lining, buddy).

The pattern actually includes belt loops, but I didn’t bother adding them even though they’re cute. I also scaled back the top-stitching a bit and didn’t always do the two rows of stitching which was recommended.

I bought a fat quarter for the lining. Not a particularly smart decision in light of the fact that you need a 23″ x 2″ strip for the waistband (and this fat quarter’s longest side was 21″). I ended up sewing two pieces together to get the required length – in the end it didn’t matter much as the join is hidden by the gathers in the waist. I used a lining off-cut to cover the button.

I quite liked the pattern (there are photos for each step), although I did come a cropper a few times – both the fabric and thread used in the pattern photos are cream-coloured and sometimes I found it hard to see what was supposed to be going on. I don’t particularly love the finishing of the fly area. I’ll be interested to make another pair, paying close attention to the instructions, and see if it was just me or if the pattern is a little imprecise. These small gripes aside, I’d recommend the pattern – just go slowly and pay attention! I’m looking forward to trying out more of The Lily Bird Studio’s patterns.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how these turned out. I had cut most of the pieces out before our move and the actual sewing part only took me two evenings and one of Hugo’s naps. Not bad.

Elena seems to like them too. Phew!