Child's Waistcoat & Bell-bottoms Part 3

In the previous blogs in this series I showed you how to design a pattern for a child’s outfit and we made a waistcoat. Today we are going to construct the bell-bottom pants to match the waistcoat.

Part 1: Conceptualization, Pattern Design & Fabric Layout
Part 2: Constructing the Waistcoat
Part 3: Constructing the Bell-bottoms

The patterns can be downloaded from APrettyTalent.com. Click here for the pattern.

Overlock/zigzag the frayed edges of the fabric pieces.

Align the bigger bell-bottom insert with the hem of the outer seam of the pant leg. Pin it in place.

Sew allowing 1,5 cm for the seam.

Pin the other side of the pant leg to the insert and sew.

The stitch lines will meet at the top.

Starting from this point upwards, pin the side seams together and sew. Repeat the steps for the other leg as well.

I repeated the same steps as above to attach the inserts of the inner legs and won’t bother repeating the steps, but let me interrupt myself quickly to show you a neat trick. The shiny fabric I worked with made the needle on my machine very sticky (the shiny pieces were glued to the fabric). This build-up of glue caused the thread in the needle to keep on breaking. A very easy solution for this problem is to simply put a piece of paper between the fabric and the needle. The paper will clean the needle as it passes through and you will be able to work without any further breakages. When you are done you simply peel the paper off along the perforated line. It releases quite easily. A word of warning: paper will cause the needle to become blunt more quickly.

Pin the inner seam and crotch area and sew.

Pin the crotch seam and sew all the way through from front to back.

Tack both of the false rouge pieces along the long sides.

Sew them by hand on to the side seams (you may very well be able to do this with the machine by using top stitching, but I was not going to try it given the tricky fabric I was working with).

Measure the elastic to fit the child’s middle and cut to size. Sew the two ends together. I used a zigzag stitch for this.

Fold a small hem for the middle, pin and stitch.

Put the elastic band in, fold over and stitch the waist band. If you find this difficult to do, you can stitch the waistband firs, leaving a small opening at one end, and then thread the elastic through.

You now need to hem the legs at the bottom. I prefer folding the hems over twice and then sewing it by hand, but in this case I used the sewing machine with a neat top stitch.

In a few easy steps you have a cute little outfit for a little girl.

For more crafty ideas and great products, visit APrettyTalent.com.

Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.

You can subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by email by simply registering your email address at the top of the current blog.