The Brooke Van Gory "Gory Pants" tutorial

Here at Modern Rosies, we are all about sharing. Sharing what works, what doesn't. How to make awesome, and how we screwed that awesome up, so you don't. And we listen. So when you all told us that you all wanted to get into Brooke's pants...... well.... here ya go.

If you are a long time BVG customer, you will remember for the last two years, I sold "Gory Pants in the shop. They were kid's knit pajama pants made from upcycled tee shirts. They were awesome, and SO darn cute. I since have stopped making them (much to the dismay of my customers, you all keep asking for them!!) So instead of offering them again, I am going to raise the bar a bit. I am going to SHOW you how to make them yourself!

Materials:

scissors
no-roll 1" elastic (Can be found by the notions in your fabric store)
an old tee shirt (For pants 12m and larger, I recommend at least a men's XL, otherwise, a medium or large is cool)
sewing machine and thread
a pair that fits your kiddo well

Remember, when you choose a pair of pants to use for this project, they need to be made of a stretchy material, like sweatpants. I will do another tutorial next week on how to make NON-STRETCHY pants. ;)

Cut the sleeves off the tee.

Take the tee, and fold it in half. Make sure you smooth out any wrinkles.

 Take the pants, and lay them on top of the tee like so:

Cut around the pants, leaving an extra 2.5 inches at the top, ABOVE where the pants are, and cutting about 1/4" away from the pants, for a seam allowance.

You will now have two separate pieces that look like this:

Fold the pieces together, and sew up the insides of the leg part. (you can pin them before hand, I usually don't, because I serge mine normally. For the tutorial, though, I did a straight stitch, with a zig-zag stitch on the edge.

The bottom of the pants will look like this, with the hems matched:

Now, this is the part where you need to pay attention. Both pant legs will be INSIDE OUT. Take ONE leg, and turn it right side out. Slide THAT leg INTO the the inside-out leg, and match the seams at the crotch. Do a double check, and make sure the right sides of the fabric are TOUCHING.

Sew right up that seam. So if you are looking at the pants, you would be sewing from the center of the front, to the center of the back.

Now, flip them right side out, and you should have THIS! Good job, you! Almost there!!!!

Now, you need the elastic. The elastic on ANY pair of pants will be about 2" shorter then the actual pants you are making. See where I am pointing? Cut about there......

Now set that aside, and fold down the top of your pants. I fold down about 1.5" on the top. It does not need to be perfect.

Sew all the way around the edge of the folded down part. You will essentially be making a "tube" to put the elastic through. You need to remember to leave an opening to thread the elastic through.

Remember that piece of elastic you cut? Take that sucker, and thread it through the tube you just created. I stick a safety pin through one end, to shuttle it through. ;) Make sure it is flat, then sew a straight stitch right through it a bunch of times. You don't want it to give, right?

Now sew the hole you threaded through.

BOOM! You are all done!!!!!!!

No need to hem the pant legs, the bottom hem of the tee works just fine. ;)

The pants are perfect for lounge pants, or to give as gifts. My little guy wears them all the time, and I even found an XXXL tee at Goodwill to make my 11 year old a pair of crop pants!

I will be making 2 more pants tutorials the next 2 Tuesdays, so please stay tuned, or subscribe to this blog. Next week will be flannel pajama pants (non-stretch) and the last one will be fleece pants with a yoga waist! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about this tutorial. I tried to make it as easy as possible, but what is easy for me might be not so easy for another seamster or seamstress! I just want to know if I am being clear, or if I am being confusing, or if I need to do something differently>

Brooke is the owner and seamstress at Brooke Van Gory Designs. She lives in The Chicago suburbs with her two kiddos, and her rock star husband! You can shop BVG here, and follow her on Google+ here.