Knit Pants Tutorial- No Pattern Required!

There are so many cute knit fabrics out right now, with more to come in the near future (Michael Miller *squeal*). I thought I'd give you guys a simple project you can do with knits.

If you read this blog regularly you know I make a lot of things without patterns. It certainly isn't because I'm an expert at sewing (because I'm totally not). In most cases it is because I'm too lazy to trace and cut a pattern, or because I see something I want to make but can't justify buying another pattern. Most likely it will just sit unopened, which is really a shame.

I'm going to show you how you can make a pair of knit pants creating your own pattern! Don't be scared, it is really simple. Even if you are a beginner to sewing, no problem! You can even make them with a fancy foldover yoga waistband. The great thing about sewing with knits are that they are very forgiving so your pattern does not need to be perfect.

Now, if you have never sewn with knit fabric, just a couple of things you should know first.

1. Use a ballpoint needle. If you don't have one it isn't the end of the world. You can use a universal needle, but your seams may eventually start to come apart. I'll tell you a little secret though, I have often used a universal needle and my clothing has held up just fine- through two kids even!
2. Knit is stretchy and your seams may break if you use a regular straight stitch. Check your machine manual as you may have a few stitches built into your machine especially for knits. If not, use a small zig zag. This will allow the seam to stretch when your kids move and the threads won't break. I'll tell you another secret though, I often sew with a regular straight stitch using knits if it is on a seam that doesn't undergo a lot of stress and I have never had any seams break.

Cut corners at your own risk. ;)

Here we go! What you do need for sure, is a pair of knit pants that fit your child and a large piece of paper. 

 I just use the paper out of my kids' easle. Thus, the wrinkly paper (I stole the last piece). I don't have an excuse for the pants other than I don't like ironing unless I'm sewing.
Start by taking your pants and pulling the front seam forward as shown. Place on your paper and trace all around the pants other than the straight side on the right.

Hopefully you can see my line. This is what you should have when you pull your pants away.

Now pull out the back seam of the pants. Line your pants up with where your tracing left off and trace around the right side of your pants.

Notice your waistband will slant slightly upwards toward the back and usually the front seam will be slightly higher and smaller than the back. Cut out your tracing. Don't mind my extra lines, I was toying with the idea of making my legs narrower.

Now, I am now cutting off the top inch of my pattern piece. The reason for this is that I want to make my pants have a foldover yoga waist and do not want to have an elastic with casing.
When I traced my pants I waas tracing them with the waistband included.
If you want to make a casing and just make them elastic waist you would want to add another inch or so to the top of your pattern so you could create the casing.

Fold your fabric so that you have a double layer. Put your pattern piece on top and cut. We are doubling our fabric so we end up with two legs. Also cut your piece about 1/4 inch larger on all sides of your piece to accomodate your seam allowance. As you can see mine is not uniform all the way around. I promise this will be ok! Knits are forgiving!

At the bottom I cut about an inch bigger to allow the hem of the pants. I forgot that the pants I used to trace were a bit short for my little girl already and didn't remember this until the end. We can fix this too if you do the same thing sometime! I will tell you more when we get to the hem.

You also will need to cut a piece for your waistband. Measure your child's waist and cut a piece that is 75-80% of that measurement plus 1/2 inch for seam allowances. For instance my little girl's waist is 23 inches. 75% of that is 17.5 inches. Add the 1/2 inch and I cut a piece 18 inches by 8 inches. The 8 inch height was a random number I came up with thinking it would be great for the foldover waist. You could do any height but I would suggest not going smaller than about 2 inches.

I used cotton lycra for my pants and waist. If you are using anything other than cotton lycra for your pants (interlock or jersey) it is a good idea to use cotton lycra for the waistband if you want the foldever waist like mine. Cotton lycra has the best recovery and is stretchy so will hold your pants up! 

Right sides together sew the left and right seams on your pants (which will be your front and back seams).

My machine has a stretch stitch so I didn't use a zig zag. I did finish my seam with a zig zag but you don't have to! Knit won't unravel, I just do it because I think it looks better.

Now, if you pull your pants apart and put your seams at the front and back this is what you will have.

Starting at the bottom of one pant leg and sewing all the way up to the crotch, around and down the other leg join your pants. Set pants aside.

Grab the rectangle you cut for your waistband. Right sides sew together into a tube.

See? Tube!

Fold in half wrong sides together matching up raw edges.

Make quarter marks on your waistband and on the top of your pants. Right sides together pin waistband to pants aligning raw edges at quarter marks. Make sure the seam on your waistband lines up with the back seam of your pants.
Sew waistband to pants and remove pins.

What you have at this point! The waist looks extra high because it is not yet folded over. Here is where you try the pants on your child to make sure you hem them the proper length. Here is where I learned that unhemmed they were the perfect length. What to do....

A lettuce edge!! Practice on a scrap piece of fabric first!! Set your machine to the narrowest zig zag stitch you can get (it will not look like a zig zag it will be so close). While pulling the fabric on both sides (behind the pressure foot and in front) stretch your fabric as much as you can while sewing close the edge of your pantleg. You may need to go around twice. When you let go of the fabric and it isn't stretched anymore it will create this girly lettuce edge. Super cute especially on shirt sleeves but worked for me in this case too!

Easy, right?

Not only easy, but comfy too and perfect to play in!
You could also make them shorter and have capris, or even add a ruffle like these Ruffle Jeans.
Don't forget to add your photos to the Flickr Group!