I am always excited over our next guest – Kelly from Sewing in No Mans Land. Kelly is simply the best. The combination of her unique creations and photography skills makes for a killer blog. Every time I see a new post pop up in my reader from her I immediately click on it with joy, just knowing there will be tons of eye candy coming my way. And her sewing skills are top notch, she always has clear and easy to follow instructions – often accompanied with a pattern – to help the rest of us bloggers along our sewing journey.
In fact, she is one of the many bloggers that encouraged me along my pattern making journey when she posted THIS tutorial about digitizing patterns.
I could seriously post Kelly’s photos all day long. I mean, just look at them!
Lucky for us, she also runs a successful photography business…which means photo tutes will also pop up from time to time on her site!!! (And of course, even more lucky if you happen to live by her – ha!)
She is just amazing, and quite frankly needs no introduction from me. We all know and love her!
So please join me in welcoming Kelly from Sewing in No Mans Land as she shares her New Years ReSewLution with us…
Welcome Back Kelly!
Evie has brought them out to me several times from her closet to put on so I consider that her stamp of approval. I think she likes how comfy they are and that she can climb trees in them!
This pattern is super easy and based on my Bali Bliss pants.
What you will need:
- 1/2 yard fabric (if you have a toddler)
- elastic, both waistband width and extra thin
- ribbon of your choice
- remnants of contrasting fabric you like (I used a soft corderoy)
- The pattern for the pants found HERE (this will include the Bali Bliss top but you can just discard those pieces)
- The oval pattern can be found HERE
I used some pictures for this part of the tutorial from the black pair and white pair of shorts I made, so please excuse the color change 😉 If you haven’t already, cut your pant legs, then hem.
I totally forgot to take a picture of this part but it is so easy. Take both your pant legs and open them up so the wrong side is facing up. Take a very thin elastic and stretch it from one side of the pant leg all the way across to the other. You don’t want to over stretch it just enough that it will bounce back after sewing. Attach the end of the elastic to the end of the wrong side of the pant leg just above the hem by doing a back and forth stitch. Now attach the thin elastic by pulling it as you sew. Then back and forth at the end. The black pants were the first I made and I made the mistake of adding the thin elastic after sewing up the side seam. It is much better to do it now, believe me 🙂 Once you are done flip the pant legs over. Grab your ribbon. I lined up the elastic with the middle of my ribbon then topstitched the top of the ribbon and the bottom of the ribbon, stretching it out as you sew. Now is the time to attach your “knee pads”. If you don’t want to take the time to download the pattern you can just draw an oval. I used a soft corduroy. Place your oval on the right front side of each pant leg. I then used a small zig zag stitch to topstitch around the oval. Once you are done turn your pants back inside out.
Now we are going finish the top! Gather all the way around the top of the pants.
Now we are going to attach the front and back bands. When ironing the front band you want the long raw edges and short raw edges so that the entire thing is finished. First grab your “back” band though:
(ignore the drawstring)
Thank you Jessica for having me and the crazy girl over 🙂
Cheers!
Oh my goodness Kelly, those are just about the cutest Penguin pants I have ever seen! And I happen to like the name, sometimes our husbands have strokes of genius :). Thank you so much for being here and sharing them with us!!! I have been eye-balling a similar pair of bloomers, and this tutorial is perfect.
You can find Kelly Sewing in No Mans Land at:
{blog} {facebook} {twitter} {pinterest}
Thanks so much for stopping by, and until next time…Happy Sewing!
These are darling…and my husband knows that the entire area around my sewing pile is a “no comment zone”…and thats a good thing!
liZ
Same here liZ!!! Unless I ask my husband specifically for advice…he knows better! Lol
Oooooh, these are SO cute! But really, does Kelly ever do anything that isn’t cute? Love it!!
great “garem” pants, very european. come by to our free tutorial “how to make a pillowcase dress” on http://www.5berriessewingpatterns.blogspot.com
I loveeee this!!! Buy when I click on the pattern link it says it appears to be broken 🙁 HELPPPP PLEASE 😀