Tiny Heiny Valentiny! (Reversible Baby Britches)

Let me start by saying that I LOVE Valentines dresses. Love may not even be a strong enough word. However for my little 11-month-old they are not very practical. So I decided to make her some adorable Valentine pants, reversible of course!

You can make these for children of any size! Would you like to try? Here is the tutorial:

What you need:

two coordinating fabrics and matching thread

elastic

a pair of your child's pants

Let's get started! First, get out your child's pants and spread out the legs. Trace around the entire left leg. When you get to the crotch stretch the waist band and mark the middle of it on your paper, then bring the line up to that point. When you get done it should look something like this:

(I forgot to take a pic of my paper, so this is the fabric obviously.) Then add 2 inches to the bottom of the leg (for the cuff, so they can wear it longer!) and a half inch all the way around except for your straight side for a seam allowance. Now lay the paper so that the straight line of the pants is on the fold and cut out two of each fabric. If your fabric isn't wide enough to cut on the fold you can also cut out two on each side, making sure you add a half inch to the straight side because you will need to sew that together. Does that make any sense? Here is what it will look like:

If you have pieces like the ones above, go ahead and sew them right sides together down the straight edge and press the seams out.

Now it's time to make the sweet heart pocket. Decide which side you want it on, then use the coordinating fabric for the pocket. Cut two fat hearts and put lay them on the pants. Now you can if it's big enough/small enough.

Now pin the heart right sides together and sew around leaving an inch and a half open. Clip the corner and around the curves, like so:

No turn it right side out and press. Place it where you want it on the pants (keep in mind you need to leave room for your sewing allowances on the pants!), pin and topstitch it on. When you topstitch leave the top open if you want a pocket. This is what you should have now:

Now comes the fun part, sewing the pants together! First you need to sew up the pants leg, so fold the pants pieces wrong sides facing, pin the leg parts only, and sew up the leg. Start from the bottom, and when you reach the crotch leave a half inch. Press the seams out.

This next part is a little tricky. You need to pin the two pants pieces together now. Start at the crotch and work your way to the waist line.

Got it? Ok now sew along where you pinned, starting at the waist. As you get to the crotch it can get a little tricky, so go slowly and keep pulling the fabric taught so there won't be any wrinkles. When you get to the crotch sew right up to the seam on the pant's leg, back stitch and stop.

Turn the pants over and start from the waist again and do the same thing. Now you have what look like little pants! Press the seams out. Repeat with the pants pieces in the coordinating fabric. Now you have this:

Almost done! Now turn one of the pants inside out and put it inside the other.

Now even up the edges. If the waist or the bottoms of the legs are not the same size, now is the time to fix that. Press the edges of the waist of the outer pants in a half inch and press the edges of the inner pants to match up with them.

Do the same with the pants legs.

Top stitch around the bottom of the pants legs. Then stitch a quarter inch away from your topstitching, just to make it extra secure.

Topstitch around the waist, leaving a half inch open for the elastic to go through. Then sew an inch away from your top stitching all the way around.

Now insert the elastic. When it's all the way through pin the ends together and sew 4 or 5 lines of stitches across it to make sure it's secure.

Now topstitch over the opening and bingo bango, you've got some adorable pants!

I can't wait to see what you crafty ladies will do with this! If you decide to make these send me the pictures and I will post them on here with a link to your blog. Happy sewing!