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.