Tutorial Tuesday! Boys pants part 1, the cutting of the pieces

Here is Tutorial numeral Dos!
This makes me happy!
These pants were super simple to design, cut and assemble. Feel free to ask any questions!

I wanted to go with a simple {enough} design for my 4/5 year old son. Easy elastic waist with no zippers, buttons or snaps. He will come up to me atleast 5 times a day asking for help with his pants.
These will be quite liberating for him ;)

Here is a quick shot of the finished pair... CuTe!!

You certainly do not have to go into as much detail as I did... but if you know me then you know that that's my thing... I like little tags and do-dads and stuff.
My tags are from Night Owls Menagerie . Her prices are FaBuLoUs and so are her products!!

Ok.. so lets get started. This is going to be a little longer than the last tutorial BuT well worth it!!

To make this simple pair of boys pants you will need the following:
~ a pair of pants that your little one already has (pull on style used for this tutorial)
~1-2 yards of a nice denim fabric (1 yard for sizes 2-5 and 2 yards for 6-8)
       Please not that you can use any bottom weight fabric, corduroy, twill or even recycled denim!
~1/4 yard of a nice quilter cotton in a design your little one likes
~12" of elastic that is 1" wide
~scissors
~coordinating thread
~a nice matchy button
~a fabric marker or pencil ( I use a charcoal pencil, one that artists use.. LOVE)
~sewing machine
~ serger is optional

First things first. You want to trace the pants that you already have. I can sketch up a pair of pants pretty easily, only using measurements... but I used the pants here as a visual aid for you. Super simple and once you do it a few times you too can be a pro ;)

Fold the pants in half , front facing out, and lay them on top of your denim.
The denim is folded in half, wrong sides together, so that when I cut one piece I am actually cutting both front pieces at the same time. Pretty handy trick.

                            Notice I went a little large, that is my seam allowance.. meaning the space I give
                                                                           myself to sew.

Once you trace the front pieces, fold the pants with the back facing out and do the same. I went right next to my front pieces to reduce waste.

If you did it correct you will end up with something like this

Go ahead and cut both pieces out, remember that the denim is folded in half so you are actually cutting TWO opposite pieces.
Here is what you should have once you cut them out

Next step is to cut the half circles from the bottom of the legs. Adds funk. I like funk.
Simply draw a 1/4 circle on the bottom of one of the pants legs like so..

Cut the piece (remember we are cutting both fronts at the same time) and put it on the back leg pieces and trace to cut an exact replica. You will end up with this..

     I am going to add in quick that I marked and F on the front pieces of my pants and a B on the back
                                                       pieces as not not mix them up

Take those pieces and trace them onto your printed quilters cotton to get 4 more of the semi-circles

Cut them out and you should have the following pieces
~2 front pant panels
~2 back panels
~4 denim semi-circles
~4 printed quilters cotton semi-circles

                                   Front panels are on the left and back panels are on the right

Next up are the front pockets.
I don't know about your 4 year old.. but mine LoVeS pockets and all that you can stuff into them
Pockets are a must have on our pants.
I am going to do the simple version of pockets.
Yes.. they are simple ;)
Take your back panels and fold them together and set them aside for now. We will be working on the front for a little bit.
Lay your front panels down and grab some of the denim that is left over after cutting the pants.
Put the scrap denim, right sides together, down on the pocket side of the panel.. like in the picture.
Then you simply draw a pocket similar to mine. We will stitch it right to the front of the pants so be creative, leave an opening for the hand.. other than that you can go square, rectangular or curved like mine.

Cut that piece out and put it on another piece of scrap denim to get the opposite pocket. In order to do this correctly you need to put the piece right side to right side (or wrong side to wrong side)
I hope I am not confusing you.. please ask questions if I am :)
Your piece should look like this

Trace and cut so you have two denim pocket pieces, opposite from one another.
Then do the same thing with the quilters cotton, you want two pocket pieces from that as well.. opposite from one another.

When you are done you should have 4 pocket pieces, two opposite denim pieces and 2 opposite cotton pieces. If you want to do a rear pocket they are also super simple. I gauge the size by using my hand and just cut a piece that looks like a typical back pocket.. my hand fits in the piece. Here is an example.

The last two pieces that need to be cut are the waistband pieces, tomorrow I will show you how to assemble all of them.

For the front waistband you want to measure across both pieces. Mine was 11" so I cut a rectangle that was 12" long by 4" tall.
My back panels together measured 15" so I cut a piece about 16" long and 4" tall.
Here is a  picture of those.
Remember to measure twice and cut once.
Tomorrow we will assemble the pants! See you then!!