Friday, March 13, 2009

Poop on Ann Arbor

Joel slept the day away today, allowing me to actually get some sewing done. Yay! I whipped out Wednesday’s thrifted t-shirts faster than you can say, “Poop on Ann Arbor.”
No offense to any Michigan fans out there. You know I’m just kidding.
(Well, I’m half kidding).
(Okay, I’m not really kidding at all).

So I mostly finished a total of six pairs of kiddie pants today. I say “mostly” because I didn’t want to do the elastic or hem the bottoms until he’s ready to wear them so I can make sure I get a good fit. That and I hate working with elastic, so I’m putting it off for about a year.

First up: the map pants. You can see this was a well-loved t-shirt in its former life by the amount of wear and tear it’s received. You can barely even make out the license plate that says “GR8 ST8.” I cut that out and put it in the trash. It was pretty nasty.


Upon closer inspection of the shirt, I discovered this:



What were they thinking? I really wanted to use this part of the map for the seat of the pants, however it just wouldn’t work. That’s too bad, because then he really could have pooped on Ann Arbor.

Here’s the finished product along with a pair of Buckeyes pants to cleanse my palate from that bad Ann Arbor aftertaste:




I’m tempted to stand up and sing a round of one of my favorite hating-on-the-state-up-north tunes. “We don’t give a damn about the whole state of Michigan, the whole state of Michigan, the whole state of Michigan. We don’t give a damn about the whole state of Michigan, ‘cause we’re from Ohio. We’re from Ohio! OH! We’re from Ohio! IO!

Anyway…. A few more cute pairs of pants:




And last but not least, a pair of Valentines pants that were originally a pair of napkins. They’re kind of girlie, however he was a February 14th baby.


I know lots of people have done tutorials on this subject and another one really isn't warranted, but I did snap a few mid-completion photos for you. The first shows off my designer pattern. Nothing says kiddie pants like a cut-out ad for Papa Johns Pizza and a Pet Extravaganza.



If you go to this tutorial for the pants, you can see how she started with a t-shirt that had the picture on the bottom right of the t-shirt. I don't know about you, but all the t-shirts I have have the design just below the neck, front and center. If you're lucky enough to have the design at the bottom of your shirt, then you can do as they recommend and use the bottom of the t-shirt for the hem of the pants. If you're unlucky like me, then you will have to move the pattern to the top of the shirt, center the design on either the left or right side of your pattern, and then do the hem of the pants yourself.

The previous photo shows you where to place the pattern for the easy method. I forgot to photograph the more difficult method. The good news is, even if you have to do the difficult method for one of the two pattern pieces, you can probably do the easy method for the other as long as it is just plain with no design. And by the way, "the more difficult method" still is not difficult. It just entails doing one more step since you have to hem the bottoms.

Here's what you get once it's cut out. I've highlighted the crotch areas in pink. That is where you will sew first. After you've sewed those two lines, you'll turn it so the crotch is in the middle, and voila, you have legs like you see in the last photo.


If you know your colors, you can sew kiddie pants like these! Pink was first. Then do the yellow, creating the legs. Next, sew a casing for the elastic to go through where the blue line is, making sure to leave an opening for the elastic. Finally, hem where the green lines are, unless of course, you are one of the lucky ones!

7 comments:

  1. These pants are the best! I am so sorry Ann Arbor didn't work out for the bootie. Pooping on Ann Arbor is such a great idea. ;)

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  2. Those will be great! I like how you were able to use the logo's, so tell me how you REALLY feel about Michigan! LOL Wish we were closer & I would give you a bunch of the boy fabric prints I have!

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  3. I was just thinking about this but you could use a similar technique to make some baggy sweatpants for adults(they would not form to your shape and it might be more difficult seeing that you would need alot more fabric for them) but still it could work, haha!

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  4. So cute - love the black pants with the trim, and the idea of pooping on Ann Arbor! Sigh, I envy your craftiness....

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  5. love them. you had some really cool t-shirts.

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  6. They are really cute! I am running out of great t-shirts to us ;) Now that my hubby and I are getting older we just don't have "cool" shirts anymore! I'm going to have to hit some thrift stores around here....
    Thanks for visiting my blog today!

    Ashley

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  7. Your pants are really cool!! I will be trying this idea. Just to let you know,THERE ARE SOME REALLY NICE PEOPLE IN MICHIGAN!!! Like Me!!

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