Make Your Own Toddler Jeans EASY TUTORIAL

This project was born of frustration.  The girls are too skinny for 2T jeans but too long for 18-24 month jeans.  I wanted a pair of jeans that would fit them, be easy to pull up and down (because someday I hope they will be pulling them up and down to go potty!) and look cute.  I can say that these jeans have fit the bill and they were SO EASY to make!  If I can do this...YOU CAN!

What you will need:

Pair of old maternity jeans (you can use regular jeans and just add Lycra, knit or even elastic for the waist).

Thread 

Scissors

Tape Measure

Embroidery Floss (optional)

OK, on to the tutorial:

Find an old pair pants/jeans to use as your pattern.  If you don't have any jeans that fit, use old ones and just add on the inches where you want when you cut them out.  Fold your jeans in half so that the legs are lying on top of each other. Cut everywhere you see the white arrows.  

When you are done cutting your shape should look like this:

 Now lay your two pieces right sides together.  Sew just in the U-shaped area (I stitched twice for extra durability then serged my edges).  If you don't have a serger handy, just do a zig zag stich on the edge to reduce fraying. Like this:

Once that is done, you will open up your pants and again lay right-sides together in your pants shape like the picture under this, now sew the sides (and serge or zig zag to reduce fraying):

They will look like this:

Then do this (almost done people):

Now like I said before, I used maternity jeans (got 'em free).  You can use regular jeans and use any knit or Lycra fabric you have lying around, or just cut some more jean material and do an elastic casing.  

Maternity jeans are the easiest though (and pretty easy to find at your local thrift shop if you don't have a pair you are ready to part with).   Take your waist measurement to the elastic band on the top like this:

This is a blurry picture of me sewing the side of the cut elastic:

This is what it should look like after you have sewn the sides ( well you may want to actually cut it straight...how embarrassing for ME!)

 Bring your elastic up about an inch away from your edge then sew around as closely to the edge of your elastic as you can like this:

 Then cut off the excess and serge or zigzag around the entire seam to finish it off.  Flip it up and this is what they will look like:

 Unless you want to make some pockets. What I did is make myself a little pattern based on the pockets of their outgrown jeans (just added about an inch for seam allowance to all sides):

 Cut them out of the excess jean material you now have on hand.  Serge or zigzag the top of your pocket and then press everything down like so:

Now you are going to actually sew all around your pocket:

There, you have two little pockets:

Then if you want to get fancy (or crazy as my husband would say) you can do some hand embroidery.  I just did some simple stitches (great project to do while watching your favorite movie/show):

Then just pin them on, and sew on top of your previous stitches and they will look like this:

I also plan on stitching some fake pockets and zipper lines in the front when I get a minute. I love the idea of doing a little trompe l'oeil on the front. I'll update when I have finished that and hopefully get a photo of the front.

These two are getting harder and harder to capture!

 The Ends