Class Patterns: Grow-With-Me Pants

I thought it might be fun to do some posts on the patterns that I choose for classes. This way you can see why I pick the patterns that we work on.

For February’s Mini Makers class I have chosen one of my favourite kids patterns. This is the Jungle pant by Puperita. It makes a fabulous pair of grow-with-me pants with a loose fit leg perfect for fitting over any kind of diaper (even the biggest cloth night butt your baby has).

This pattern is also dear to me, as it was the first thing I ever made my own little girl. I have been sewing since I was 13, but had very much fell out of love with it until my friend Caroline got me going again when I became a mum. We started with making four pairs of these pants and I was completely hooked. My girly was able to wear those same pairs for over a year and a half and now my son wears them.

The picture above shows two new pairs that I whipped up today as examples for class (and because my baba always needs more clothes). I think this picture shows why I think these are such a great make for parents or caregivers sewing for littles. Both left and right are exactly the same size, the only difference is how far I folded the cuffs. These pants last for so long with such a simple feature. The waistband and leg cuffs are long, you fold them all the way over to make the smallest size and unfold them as your kiddo grows.

I also love this simple grow-with-me because I think the pattern still looks nice in both settings. The loose leg fit means that they don’t get too tight as your kid grows. I once bought a pair of similar style leggings at a market, but the leg was so tight that they stopped fitting long before we unrolled the cuffs. I don’t know about other parents, but I certainly love when clothes last, especially when my kids were/are under 18 months and it feels like they need a new size every week.

The trick to these pants working is that kids grow in length a lot quicker than their waist size grows. On top of that, the pattern puts the most stretch in those lovely waist band and cuffs – where stretchy cuffing material means the pants will fit comfortably over a long range of time.

The pattern is a great place for beginners to start learning to sew too. It is made of only 5 pieces. The constructions is easy and forgiving – a great place to learn how to match seams and sew evenly. It is also great for starting to understand basic construction of garments, how they shape to the body and how to handle different types of stretch fabric (it is really WAY easier than most think).

All-in-all I think this type of pattern is perfect for learning to sew. It gives a great intro to sewing skills and has a lot of play for making a variety of different garments. You can colour block with different cuff colours, or even mismatch the legs entirely like I did on the matching sweat pants I made for my big and little babies.

If you think these look like a fun project, why not come and join Mini Makers February class to learn to make them. No sewing experience is required. We will go through all the steps to take you successfully from start to finish of this pattern! To check out the classes and register, click here.

Happy Sewing!

Meaghan

The Coastal Stitcher