DIY Baby / Toddler Yoga Pants

My husband asked me why a toddler needs yoga pants. (as if the fact that kids wearing adult-style clothing pieces in mini versions is the cutest thing ever isn't reason enough) And I said because, duh, babies need to relax too.

Life can be very stressful. For example when someone gets her crib replaced with a big girl bed over the weekend it can be a tough transition. Oooo, the worry!But after a few good stretches...And we have a zen-like oneness with the new bed. Ahhhhh....(I had to remind her of her new found 'bed peace' at 1:30a when she woke up a bit panicked as to where the heck she was)

So here's how I made them...SO. EASY. I sound like a broken record because I say that with every tutorial but it's true! These only took me 30 min! I made these from a pair of adult hand-me-down lucky brand sweat pants but you can use anything. I plan on making them in a light-weight jersey knit in the summer.

First I drew up a pattern for the pant legs by using a pair of her existing pants as a guide. The difference in these pants though is to make the leg a straight wide leg, no tapering. I cut out the pant legs by laying 1st the pattern, then the cut piece on the adult pant legs. Also notice that the pieces are cut "on the fold" so that you only have to stitch an inside seam.(in the above pic I've already cut one leg from the pattern, now I'm laying the cut piece on the fabric & using it as a guide to make the 2nd leg)

For the waistband I had to do a bit of finagling to make the amount of fabric in the adult pants work. If you're using a large piece of fabric you'll just cut this as one large rectangle. The measurements will depend on the size of your child's waist. The length of the finished rectangle should be your child's waist + 1" seam allowance. For me that was 19", therefore each smaller rectangle ended up being 9.5" in length. (the smaller rectangle is 1/2 of your final length) The height of the rectangle should be around 5", a bit less if this is for a baby. If that didn't make sense keep reading through the directions and hopefully you'll see what I mean...

1st I cut a rectangle (on the fold!) from the top of the adult pants. (5" x 9.5")Next I used that piece to cut another matching rectangle on the other side of the pants. I opened the two pieces up and pinned/stitched one of their short sides together. Now I had one large rectangle. (19" x 10")Next, with right sides together, stitch the other 10" sides together. You should have a tube like below.Set this aside and let's stitch the pant legs. 1st sew a seam from the crotch down on each leg. To sew the rest of the seams there's a neat trick where you can stick one pant leg inside the other and do it all with one seam. The outside leg should be wrong side out & the inside leg should be tucked inside that leg right side out. This always confuses the heck out of me so what I do is pin along where I need the seam to be and check to see if once those pin lines are stitched does everything look right? Pins can be a way to 'try out' a seam before stitching it. Here what the legs look like before sewing that final seam...you'll stitch from one top of the pant leg, down to the crotch & back up the other top pant leg. It's kind of a "U" shape. Afterwards pop out the inside leg and you're almost done!To attach the fold-over waistband turn your rectangle tube right side out, fold it in half & slide it onto the pants with the open end aligning with the top of your pants. Pin across the top. You're going to be sewing through 3 layers, two from the waistband, one from the pants...like this...That's it! Flip up the waistband, slip them on your little one and fold down the band, ta-da! Yoga pants! The great part about having a fold-over waistband is you can adjust the length of the pants by folding it over more or less, this way all your hard-work isn't for one month's worth of wear! And with that...

Namaste.

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