MSL Creations: Boy Pant Sewing

I tend to mostly blog about sewing for myself and recently it has occurred to me the I do a ton of sewing for the kids too, why not talk about it. I do enjoy my kid sewing. So today I'm going talk about sewing up the Scientific Seamstress Field Research Pants. I bought these in the boy pattern bundle, oh, two years ago? Something like that. Crazy.

I finally made the first pair last winter for my oldest to wear to Scouts. They turned out fabulous! I made him the zippered version. He loved them.

I was a little surprised to be making him the 11/12- he was only 10 and had always measured smaller in patterns. Still I trusted the size and they fit perfectly. There was more than enough room to last through the Summer and into the Fall but not so much that they were oversized. He is still wearing them these days but they are getting short, at least when he is forced to wear them with the bottom legs.

So a few weeks ago I pulled out the pattern again, this time for my youngest boy child. I am planning on potty training him over the school break next week- wish me luck! He is in need of easy pull on/off pants. His current collection of thrift store pants require a little help.

I printed out the 3t and went to work. I used the 3t with a 13 inch inseam. Unlike the pair I made for my oldest these seem to have a lot of width. When I mentioned it on the Facebook SS Lab page, Jeanine explained that the smaller sizes have more room for diapers and growing/moving toddler bodies. Awesome. Trouble is my toddler is long and lean! Turned out to be a blessing in disguise though as the outer fabric is thinner than I thought and I was concerned they wouldn't be good for the cooler weather. I ended up lining these in flannel. Super easy to do. I did mine very similar to this tutorial. They are perfect and these are the best pictures I could get at that time.

This pattern went together so quickly- especially without the zippers. I love the nice big pocket on the hip and the back pockets fit little hands too! I did omit the flaps on those pockets.

As you may have read in the blog, I've been sewing along with the Sew the Show blog for the past two months. Its been so much fun. Well this month I was able to snag a spot in their 6 Degrees of Separation Tour! If you haven't checked it out yet, go!

I decided to use the Field Research pants as part of my look- you'll have to tune back in on Friday for that post. Problem was I needed a slimmer fitting pant. It turns out slimming the FR pant could not be easier! I simply folded an inch out- so the fold was 1/2 an inch wide- straight down from the top to the hem. Don't forget to fold the facings too, I forgot on the muslin and had recut them.

Here are the two pairs from the slimmed down version. They are great! I love the roominess of the original pair too. So I think he'll end up with a few of both. I should also mention that the elastic on mine comes forward past the side seams. My boys are on the thin side so they need a little extra tuck on their pants. The ones I made for my oldest had elastic all around- which was actually a mistake but works really well for him. On these I stopped the elastic just behind the pocket front.

Before I go I'll share one important rule for sewing for children- MEASURE them EACH time you sew. No joke, from the time I made the muslin to the final, the boy grew an inch! So the black pants have a 14 inch inseam. Fun times. Here's a quick action shot of the back.