I have been on a Jalie 3461 marathon! Well for me its a marathon, I sewed 4 in the last month and have one 3/4 done downstairs right now. I am loving this pattern both for myself and my daughter. I'll be making a few more pairs for her for sure.
I'm going to show you hers as I have better pictures of those. My daughter has recently decided she likes wearing pants. She refused to wear them until about a month ago. Last year I hunted down this thick sweater fleece to make her "leggings" to wear under her dresses in the winter. Oy! I have to say I'm happy about this turn around as it will make winter dressing easier. On the other hand, my daughter doesn't fit into RTW pants. She is on the short side of six and on the top fairly average to slim. She wears RTW size 6 tops and dresses with no issues. What she does have is a booty. In order for pants to fit over her booty I have to size up- I bought a great pair of brand name jeans at Goodwill the other day. I like to buy at Goodwill for a number of reasons, including that I find older styles from before this crazy skinny jeans trend for kids. Anyway I bought her a size 8 knowing they would be too long. Unfortunately they were hard for her to pull up and the snap was impossible for her to do by herself. Frustrating.
So to the sewing machine I went. I actually dislike making jeans- pants in general. I find them boring. Which is silly because I always feel so inspired when I make them.
I looked in my Ottobre magazines but didn't find anything I wanted to make. I had just purchased the Jalie pattern to make myself some pants and realized I could make them for her first! I got to check out the construction and fit issues (she and I are similarly shaped) in a smaller size. Bonus.
I measured my pipsqueak and she measured almost perfectly into the J (which they approximate for age 6). The only thing was that her inseam, which for some reason I didn't measure, is about 4 inches shorter. LOL
I went ahead and made a pair up cycled from a pair of stretch cords I had. While the size fit her well around, the back was way too low and the waist was too big. I'm going to tighten the elastic on that pair and send them off to my also six year old niece who is not as shapely.
So for the next pair I used this stretch twill that my daughter had picked out from the red tag section at JoAnns. I had kind of hidden in it since I wasn't sure I wanted my daughter decked out in animal print. Well the pants turned out so cute that she got so many compliments from her friends' parents and her teacher the day she wore them to school.
For this pair- and the final- I added 1 1/2" inches to the back crotch length. I added 1" under the yoke and 1/2" to the yoke. I also chose not to do the elastic on the waistband the way the instructions have you do it. Cutting the elastic to size on the back waistband resulted in a waist that was too big. I used my daughter's waist measurement minus one inch. I then laid the elastic on the front waist band and cut it as per the instructions. The leftover piece I stretched to fit the back waistband. It does gather more in the back than the pattern is meant to and I could go back and adjust the back waistband into a smaller size for a cleaner look. I decided that it really wasn't worth the extra adjustment for me.
I'm not sure why I didn't adjust the length before this since the first pair was also super long. I did end up taking off 4 inches.
After the adjustments I broke out the stretch denim that I found in the remnant section at JoAnns- it was just under a yard. Yes, I made each pair with slightly less than a yard for the size J(6).
I added a butterfly stitch (built in on my machine) to the pockets and topstitched with pink thread. Don't look to closely at the topstitching- I need more practice!
I just love how these turned out! She says they are super comfy as well.
The only Con I found with this pattern was that the front pockets are faux. Its not a big deal to my little one as she is used to wearing leggings with no pockets. For me I find myself constantly wanting to put something in the front pocket. I'll likely draft some pockets next time I make them.
Here's a look at my second pair made from burgundy stretch cord. I'll take better pictures and post again after I figure out the pockets!
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