Easiest Ruffle Pants

I was going to write "Easy Ruffle Pants" up there, but that would have been a lie!  They were not easy, they were the easiest.  No hem, no real measuring at the waist to create a casing for elastic... easy peasy lemon squeezy!

The pattern I used (mostly) is this ruffle pants pattern from PInk Poodle Bows pattern shop on Etsy.  I rarely use a pattern when making basic pants... but that can turn into kind of a crapshoot.  I wanted a nice easy pattern (with ruffles!) that I could reference in multiple sizes, and that was easy to adapt.  This pattern absolutely fits the bill!

The pants I made are a size 12-18 months, and I cut them for Miss Lucca.  I'm thinking that they would probably also fit Raina as shorts, and it's too bad she doesn't wear shorts this year :)  The leg is a generous wide cut leg, with ample space for Lucca's squishy and delicious baby thighs!

I used 3 fat quarters to make this size:  2 for the legs, one for the ruffles and waist facing.  I *might* have been able to squeeze out the 18-24 month pattern, too, but definitely couldn't go beyond that using fat quarters.  Now, I know I could just buy 1/4 yard of any fabric in the store... but I love digging through the fat quarters to find treasures!  These purple polka dots called my name, and told me they wanted to be pants.  I had to listen.  They were spot on!  (har har, did you catch that pun?!)

The ruffles are foldover, so NO HEMMING required!!  Woohoo!  I cut the ruffle strips twice as wide, folded them in half, and then followed directions from there.  I LOVE using a foldover ruffle instead of hemming.  So incredibly simple.

At the waist, I started folding and measuring, but before I got very far into it, I remembered one of the things I love about the treasure pocket pants pattern:  waist facing!!  So I cut a long strip the same circumference as the pants (and no, I did not measure - I pinned the extra long strip starting at the middle, and sewed the circle closed when I got all the way back around.  Again, no measuring!!), pinned it with the right side of the waist facing against the wrong side of the pants, sewed in place, flipped it over, and sewed it down with a space for the elastic to thread through.  Was that sentence long enough for you?  :)

I already have multiple pairs of these cut and waiting to be sewed up!  Some for Raina, a few more for Lucca... and most with a matching Knot Dress from the same Etsy shop!  I'm waiting to show those outfits complete, which hopefully wont take me too long... but you never know :)   Naptime has been non existent for the big girl, and unpredictable for the little girl.  Most of the time during Lucca's nap, Raina and I spend some quality messy art and science time together... but some days... like today... I let her spend some quality time with Curious George while I spend some quality time with my sewing machine.  No worries, though, we both spent some quality time with the Pirate's Booty, so we still got some bonding time in!  :)