Grow-with-me-pants are awesome! They last longer on your kiddos which saves you money from having to buy more clothes (Kids Grow Fast)! Or if you like to sew your kiddos clothes like myself, you don’t have to make pants as often, because they will just last longer. The Toddler Boy Grow-with-me-pants that I’ll show you in this tutorial, can be modified for a smaller baby or even an older child. Actually, You could make them in any size you want. I’ll show you how by just measuring your fabric against a pair of pants that your child already owns. Plus when you make them out of an old pair of pants you don’t have to worry about inseams or sewing the crotch area. I’ll show you step by step. They are super easy and fast to sew up, and they are an awesome way to use up old clothing that you no longer wear. SCORE! No money spent at all!
You can make these super cute toddler boy Grow-with-me-pants…
That can grow into these super cute big boy Grow-with-me-pants…
From these old clothes!!!
…AND by using these jammies as a pattern. You can use any pants that you like the leg room of. I like the leg room of these jammies but I measured my sons actual waist to get the waist band to fit him.
Let’s get started!
SUPPLIES NEEDED TO MAKE TODDLER BOY GROW-WITH-ME-PANTS
- Material for the legs ( I used a pair of my old capris sweat pants – If you have an old pair of pants you can cut down on the amount of sewing by reusing the inseams and crotch area of the pants)
- Material for the waist band and ankle cuffs ( I used one of my old stretchy tank tops)
- Rotary Fabric Cutter or Scissors
- Cutting Board (optional, only needed when using a rotary cutter)
- Coordinating Thread
- Sewing Machine
- Measuring tape
- Chalk
METHOD FOR CUTTING OUT YOUR FABRIC PIECES
Step 1: Lay your fabric that you choose for your pants as flat as you can, then lay your pants that you are using as a pattern on top. Make sure to line up your inseams and crotch area so that you don’t have to resew these seams. Like this…
Step 2: Trace you pants pattern onto your fabric. Like this…
Step 3: Remove the pants that you are using as a pattern and fold the material you are making into super cute toddler boy Grow-with-me-pants in half, so that when you cut out your legs they will be the same size. Like this…
Step 4: Trim away top of the fabric at your desired waist line. Like this…
You should have something that looks like this…
Step 5: Cut out your waist band. Measure the circumference of your child’s waist. Corbin’s was 22 inch’s. I folded my fabric in half and measured half of his waist circumference onto the material (11 inches for those who want to know what half of 22 inches is. hehe). That is how wide the fabric will be. To create the height of the waist band I think that 5 inches when folded in half is a great starting point, so I measured 11 inches high to allow for 1/2 inch seam allowances. So… in total for my 3 year old son who has a 22 inch waist I made my waist band fabric 22 inches by 11 inches. I hope that is clear… lol
Step 6: Make the ankle cuffs. I laid the cuffs of the jammie pants on my material and traced the size of the cuff then added 6 inches to the height of the cuff.
These are all the piece that you should now have to create your toddler boy Grow-with-me-pants. Now for sewing them all together!!
To sew stretchy fabrics I use a zig zag stitch to allow for more stretch of the fabric.
METHOD FOR SEWING YOUR FABRIC PIECES TOGETHER
Step 1: Sew the outside seams of your pants together. With face sides together sew up the sides of your pant legs using the zig zag stitch. Like this…
Step 2: Sew your waist band and cuffs into the circles that you need.
- First the waist band. Since the waist band is one complete piece of fabric just fold the width of your fabric in half with the face side to face side and sew a 1/4 inch seam.
- Next the ankle cuffs. Take 2 of the cuff pieces and sew 1/4 inch seams up both sides of the cuffs with the face sides together. Like this… This photo is deceiving I know, because the pant material is there but I sware it is just in the background and is not yet attached! 🙂
Step 3: Attach ankle cuffs to the bottom of the pants. My sewing machine allows me to remove the front storage area to allow for the leg or cuff to wrap around the sewing machine. Before you wrap the fabric around the machine, fold your cuff in half and with face side to face side, slide it over the end of the pant material so all rough ends are at the same side and your inseams lines up, and sew the cuff to the pants using a zig zag stitch. Then because usually there are 2 legs, repeat this step on the other ankle cuff. Like this…
Step 4: Sew your waist band to the top for your pants. Since your waist band will probably be smaller than that of the pants you will have to stretch your waist band as you sew so that they will line up. So, just like how to folded you ankle cuffs, fold your waist band in half and then slide it over the waist of the pants with all rough ends facing the same direction and start sewing with a zig zag stitch. Stretch our waist band as you sew but not the pant material, like this…
Completed waist band!
Once you have sewed the waist band all the way around you are DONE!!!! YAY!!!!
Your super awesome toddler boy Grow-with-me-pants should be a perfect fit for your child. Now for getting them on them kiddos is another story!! I bribed Mr. Corbin with a ring pop! Sometimes that’s what it takes to be able to get photos of him… Today was one of those times!
My blue tongued boy! love him! As you can see these Grow-with-me-pants are slightly big on Corbin (they are on the smallest size) but that just gives him lots of room to grow and they are super comfy!
So I searched and searched on the internet for some grow with me pants that started at about a size 3t and grow from there and couldn’t find any. I didn’t think that this was that much of an original idea for older kiddos?!?! Please let me know if you know of some so that I can promote them! I love sharing where someone could purchase something similar to what I create, just in case people don’t feel the creative bug and don’t want to make them themselves.
I hope that you found this tutorial to create super cute toddler boy Grow-with-me-pants easy to follow. And inspires you to make your own kiddos clothes. Just trying it is the first step. You can do it! Until next time, enjoy creating your own kiddos clothing that will grow with them, and enjoy creating beautiful things!
XO JCL
P.S. Check out other DIY’s for making your own kiddos clothes here.
P.P.S. I also made a super cute girls romper here.
My awesome sewing machine can be purchased here: (just click on the photo to view it)
