I am so excited to have Gail from Probably Actually on the blog today! Gail is an incredible sewer. She has made a closet full of clothes for her daughter and those clothes are impeccably made.  Now that she has a little boy on the way (congratulations, Gail!) we are in store for some classy boy duds! Instead of changing up the Kid Pants pattern, Gail embellished her pants with adorable-ness.  Check it out!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hello! I’m Gail from Probably Actually and I’m crazy excited to be part the pre-KCWC line up! There isn’t much I love more than making kids clothes, and it only gets better during KCWC. As you may have experienced yourself, lugging a sewing machine and serger around town to sew with friends is pretty impractical, so sewing can sometimes feel a bit solitary and anti-social. But for one week in the fall and another in the spring, Meg transforms it into just the opposite with KCWC. Suddenly we’re all on the same page, scheming about kids clothes, sewing together, and sharing our projects in the ever-inspirational Elsie Marley flickr pool. Get ready, it’s so much fun!

Anyway, today I’m here to help kick off this fall’s KCWC and show you how I jazzed up a pair of Dana’s basic Kid Pants!

While there are certainly endless possibilities for changing things up with this pattern, it also yields a great pair of pants without any adjustments at all. The pants are so simple to sew, and I love the flat front option and the wide trouser legs. I didn’t end up making any changes to the pattern itself – I used the size 2/3 downloadable pattern pieces, which worked well for my 3.5 year old (the pattern is made for kids approximately 2 to 3.5 years). There’s plenty of length built into the pattern to make nice wide hems, even when you’re at the farthest end of the pattern range like we were.

I did add a few things: Gathered pockets to the back, which I borrowed from the Oliver + S Jump Rope dress pattern (view B). Dana has a great tutorial for gathered pockets as well, if you’re looking.

And a couple of hedgehogs to the front – one at the hem,

and a mini version wrapping around the side:

Maybe you recognize the hedgehog if you’re a Mini Boden fan – it was inspired by a sweater I saw on their website awhile back. I loved it immediately, and if I were the type who bought $54 sweaters for my three-year-old, I probably would’ve skipped these pants and ordered the original. But yeah, I made my own instead.

Which wasn’t hard to do at all. I sketched the little critter out, then made eight pattern pieces.

Next, I traced each piece backwards onto Steam-a-Seam double stick fusible web, then laid those onto the wrong side of fabric scraps, cut them out, and pieced everything back together. I finished it off with a french knot for the eye. And voilà – a hedgehog was born!

Sewing around all those little pieces was a bit tedious, and might have been easier to do before the pants were fully constructed rather than after, but I didn’t have that kind of foresight at the time and it still worked out just fine. I just used a very small stitch and picked up the presser foot a lot to shift the fabric as I sewed.

That’s it! Just your basic corduroy pants adorned with woodland creatures. Thanks so, so much for having me, Meg! I can’t wait for KCWC to get rolling next week!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *