My second-grader lives in skinny jeans. For years, she rarely wore pants at all and flat out refused to wear shorts, but this year, she’s all about the skinny jeans.
The thing is, she’s tiny. She’s seven and a half and still can slip in to 18-24 month clothes, width wise. Of course, the length doesn’t fit, which brings me to our current challenge: trying to find pants that are slim on her, but long enough.
Now, she’s not tall, she takes after her 5’1″ mama, but she’s definitely taller than she is wide. So, I’ve figured out that I can make her a pretty good pair of pajama pants by using a size 2/3 pattern and adding an inch up top and 5-6 inches on the length – this yields a perfectly fitting pair of regular pants. I tried Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop‘s “Skinny Jeans” for Olivia, thinking they might work. The pair that I shared previously, here, were too small for Olivia at a size 4, but fit Grace perfectly. So, I made another pair in a size 6, but they came out HUGE for her. I think actually, that the 4 would have been a good fit, but the fabric I used on that pair didn’t really have any stretch, so they were too snug. But with a nice stretchy denim, they would have been great. Anyway, I haven’t had a chance to try them again. This pair I’m sharing today, fits her okay, but the waist has to be cinched up so much that the pants get all bulky and weird around the back waist. And the front pockets got a little strange because I kept stitching further and further in on the sides of the jeans to get them more snug. As long as her shirt comes down a couple inches over the top of the waist, they look pretty awesome.
Now, she’s not tall, she takes after her 5’1″ mama, but she’s definitely taller than she is wide. So, I’ve figured out that I can make her a pretty good pair of pajama pants by using a size 2/3 pattern and adding an inch up top and 5-6 inches on the length – this yields a perfectly fitting pair of regular pants. I tried Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop‘s “Skinny Jeans” for Olivia, thinking they might work. The pair that I shared previously, here, were too small for Olivia at a size 4, but fit Grace perfectly. So, I made another pair in a size 6, but they came out HUGE for her. I think actually, that the 4 would have been a good fit, but the fabric I used on that pair didn’t really have any stretch, so they were too snug. But with a nice stretchy denim, they would have been great. Anyway, I haven’t had a chance to try them again. This pair I’m sharing today, fits her okay, but the waist has to be cinched up so much that the pants get all bulky and weird around the back waist. And the front pockets got a little strange because I kept stitching further and further in on the sides of the jeans to get them more snug. As long as her shirt comes down a couple inches over the top of the waist, they look pretty awesome.
I love the slightly floral embossing on the jeans – this showed up much more before I prewashed the denim, but it still adds a little special touch. I also pulled out my jewel setter and added sparkly hearts on the back pockets, which are eye-catching and adorable!
I printed out a heart outline and used it as a guide to mark punch evenly spaced dots. Then I set the “stencil” on the pocket of the jeans and marked each dot with a chalk pen. Once I had the heart marked out, I used my jewel heat-setter tool to apply the crystals. Then I proceeded with the pattern to attach the pockets to the pant leg panels. Super cute, right?
You can find the Skinny Jeans pattern here.
Comments & Reviews
Jennifer Lachman says
I have the same problem with my nine year old. I have had some luck with tracing two patterns. One that fits her in the width and one that fits her in the length and then laying the two tracings over each other, matching them up at the crotch, and adjusting them to make one new pattern. It takes a little fiddling but it is the only thing that works for me other than resorting to only making elastic waste pants. Of course as soon as a figure out one perfect pattern that fits, she grows out of it and I have to start all over.
Stef says
I hate that, Jennifer, when just as you get something worked out perfectly, things change. 🙂 Good idea to use two patterns and trace the parts of each that work!
Jamie Ames says
My 7 yr old is just the opposite. She wears a 14/16 waist an 8/10 length. I am loving skinny jeans (from the store) because I can push the pant leg up. I use to hem them and then she would growm 3 inches. Ive made her pants before buti haven’t found the perfect fit for her. She has a big butt and doesnt like the waist band on her stomach. She is a challenge to find things to fit her properly.
Stef says
It’s especially tricky when these kids have opinions of their own with regards to how their clothing fits!! Makes it so tough!
Erin Biggers says
Those jeans are adorable. I actually have the opposite problem. My 5 year old daughter is 4 ft tall but has short legs and is built pretty solid. I have to make all tops and dresses longer and go up a size in bottoms while adjustig the length. I feel your frustrarions just in the opposite direction. 🙂
Stef says
That does sound frustrating, Erin! At least I’m lucky with the shirts – the problem I have with shirts is that all three girls practically wear the same size, and guess what? They all just have to wear one particular shirt on the same day! 🙂
Laura @ ON{thelaundry}LINE says
So cute, I can’t tell there are any issues in these pics! Hope you nail it down to a perfect easy fit without much more headache! I feel you on the fit issues. Olivia can be a pain to fit because she is 2T in pants but something like a 4T in shirt length. (which often meant odd shoulders except we just mostly use tunics and dresses!) Nicole had the same problem at around that age. Loooong torso and a round toddler tummy!
Stef says
Thanks, Laura! Yeah, the fit is great and they look good as long as her shirts are pulled down – it’s the very top of the back and the waistline that don’t look so hot!
Andrea Pannell says
Cute!! They look perfect!
Stef says
Thanks, Andrea!!
Sabra says
They are adorable! So fun to add the hearts on the pockets. Very professional.
And I so hear you on fit issues! My seven year old is actually thinner than my four year old. And my four year old is skinny. The seven year old is just refugee-skinny. Anyway…so much trial and error trying to find/make the perfect fit.
kristin says
Way cute! Haha whenever I measure my kids I find that the 2 year old has the same size head, chest, and waist as the almost 5 year old…but she’s about 5 or 6 inches taller. So random. THIS IS WHY WE SEW!! 🙂
kristin says
Oh yeah! The bedazzled jeans are so cute!!
Maxi says
I can totally relate to the battle with the sewing patterns and making them fit to your child’s body! My mom used to have the same problem when I grew older. I always had a slender body and still am the same. Even though I had a small waist and hip I was normally tall for my age. So I could easily slip into clothes two sizes smaller than me yet they were too short, just like your oldest daughter. 😉 That’s why my mom sewed everything for me and my brother until we got 17 or so: pants, shirts, coats, blouses, shorts, skirts and dresses. I still wear the smallest size available for women (XS or size 6) but luckily it’s not that hard to find jeans that fit me anymore.
Now, although my mom learned how to construct patterns and how to sew professionally within her studies of fashion design, she still had troubles to make pants fit to our waist and they would bulk up strangely around the back waist as well.
What she usually did to stop the fabric from doing so and what I did recently as well when both my mom and I constructed a jeans pattern for me that would fit me, we would measure my hip area and compare it with the pattern and alter it exactly around this area, meaning that you have to remove a few inches (in my case it was like 1/2 inch on each side). Naturally, if you do that you’ll have to adjust the belly area as well but only with moderation. It’s not that much of a problem if the waist is still too wide during the first fitting but before the waistband will be attached.
Depending on where you put your flat-felled seam, you’ll still be able to sew along either the hip or the crotch area to make the jeans fit tighter. In my case, I was able to tighten my jeans in both areas because I just used an overlock stitch.
The thing is that it becomes hard to make adjustments when you’re already done with the flat-felled seam in the crotch area. I still search for a way to overcome this obstacle but for now I just can think of two ways to do that:
1. Either you do the flat-felled seam in the crotch area manually without a special foot like so: http://roseycornercreations.blogspot.de/2010/11/flat-fell-seam-denim-seam-tutorial.html.
The advantage is that you can have the first fitting right after step 2 or 3. In case the jeans is still too loose you can pin the excess around the hip, back waist and bottom directly on your child in one go. Mostly, you’ll have the most excess around the butt and will end with quite less at the end of the waist. Also, I would suggest not to make the hip and crotch area too tight even though it’s a skinny jeans. I did the same mistake on my own jeans because I thought that the tighter the jeans the better they’ll look. Of course, but then I wasn’t able to close the fly anymore… 😉
2.Now, the other possibility to tighten the jeans around the crotch is to either machine or hand baste along the original seam allowance and then test the fitting on your child. Again, if the jeans does not fit, you’ll pin the excess and sew along the new seam allowances. Afterwards, it’s time for the flat-felled seam.
I hope this will help you for upcoming pant projects for your children! Maybe you’ll also consider buying the book “Pants for Any Body” by Pati Palmer and Susan Pletsch. I think it can help us sloving a lot of pant problems. 😉
Major Moma says
I have had the same issues with my daughter and I found a pair of skinny jeans on burdastyle.com that works very well. I still need to size them down on the width, but I usually go to sizes skinnier and keep the length. If I remember right, they are called died pants.