Baby-Toddler T-Shirt Pants (Tutorial)

As Salaamu Alaikum and Hello Everyone!

I have received quite a few emails asking if I know of any quick, easy, and inexpensive ways to make clothing for our little ones.  And the answer to that is, "sure I do, thanks for asking and I'm happy to share...So in this post/tutorial, I will show you how I used to make endless pairs of pants for my  cloth diapered boys when they were babies.  Wait, Don't throw out those old t-shirts! You're gonna need one of them for this exercise, and when you're done you'll want to repurpose the rest of them (smile). These pants are fun and easy to make. The best part is they are recycled and free. They only cost a little of your time.

This tutorial is loaded with pics and fashion tips. Also, I am showing you 2 ways to fashion the waist so please READ ALL THE STEPS BEFORE CUTTING ANYTHING.

Let's get started...

You will need a pair of your baby's pants to use as a pattern and help you size. Also a measuring tape, some stick pins, shears, tailor's chalk or pen, and your ironing station and sewing machine ready to go.

Lay the t-shirt flat and pin the front and back of the shirt together to keep the hem even.

I mean really even!

Now fold the shirt in half keeping the work lined up evenly.  You may iron if you need to.

Fold the baby pants in half and place them on top of the folded shirt matching the pant's hems with the bottom hem of the shirt. The sides of the pants should be about a couple of inches from the folds of the t-shirt. (always leave yourself a little room for mistakes and resizing)

 

Now cut out your pants using the baby pants as your patterned guideline. If baby has grown out of these pants, cut slightly larger to fit.

Warning: do not cut open the folds on the t-shirt that are aligned with the sides of the pant legs, nor cut away the bottom hem. This is what makes this project super easy, you'll see shortly.

Now open out both pieces of fabric and line them up with the wrong sides facing you.   Now place a 'T' (for Top) with your chalk or pencil on both pieces. This is an important step because due to the child wearing a cloth or disposable diaper the top is usually cut a little longer in length than for the legs.

Starting at the top, sew down the sides, stopping at the point of the crotch. I kept my strings attached in the pic so you can see where I've stopped sewing. And btw, I'm using my serger to construct, but regular sewing machine will work just fine.

Line up the seams evenly and place pins just like you see on the pic above to hold everything in place while you sew. Jersey fabric can be tricky especially if you are still new to the craft. But me, I live on the edge.  Those pins were back into the cushion the moment I put the camera down lol.

Now keeping everything even and aligned, sew around from bottom hem, pivoting at crotch and back down to the other hem bottom.

You've just made the body of the pants and almost done.

There are 2 ways to draw in the top to keep baby's britches up.

One way is to...

Cut away the ribbed neckline of the t-shirt and use it in place of elastic to gather in the waist line.  This way you "waste" nothing and your potty-training, pull-ups crew, will love you.

Next, place the ribbed neckline onto the waist and evenly stick a pin at the  the seams and sides. Sew it around.  It will appear to not be sized well, but the ribbing is supposed to be smaller and the jersey fabric will stretch into place you'll see.

Look at that...Perfectly Cool!

The other way is to add elastic. Just follow the pics...

 NOTE:

Before you cut out the pants at the beginning, measure about 2 inches from the top (1 inch if you're using a serger)and make a mark on the t-shirt using your tailor's chalk or pencil. This will give you room for forming the casing for the elastic.

When you finish sewing the body of the pants as instructed, fold down the top about 2 inches folding under the excess to conceal the raw edge.  Press to form.

Sew around leaving an opening big enough to draw in the elastic.

Elastic is tricky, there are tons of methods to measuring it, I've covered this before.  But for this tutorial we want nothing but comfort for our little crumb-snatchers, so just measure out a piece the full width of the pants.

 

Using a safety or diaper pin, latch it into one end of the elastic and draw it through the casing you just made.

When you're done, pin through both ends so you won't frustrate yourself.

Lay both pairs of pants onto a flat surface like shown in the pick above. (I love to work from the floor most times)

Pull the elastic to gather the waistline the size of the pattern, tie a balloon knot.  Try them on baby for a good fit, then cut away excess elastic. Make it bigger or wider to have more room if your little one needs it.

Done.

Baby Got a new pair of pants 

Tips:

*You can also make a snap open inseam by cutting away the bottom hem of another t-shirt. Cut the hem off about a half inch above where it starts, and evenly cut it open to make 2 hemmed strips.  Now instead of sewing the inseam together, just sew a hemmed strip to each side and add snaps for a quick diaper change. 

* You can also decorate them using baby safe paints and decals.

*You can also make skirts, small tops and shorts from dad's old tees.

Hey, and the short sleeves of the t-shirt make great things too like this hat.

Donate a pair of baby-toddler t-shirt pants to Al-Maun Fund.

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Enjoy your sewing journey.