Nessesity is my motivation to sewing

As you see below, a three year old naps. This is a rare occurrence so I jumped on my sewing machine since baby 2 was also asleep.



Some of you might know and be experiencing warmer temperatures. Since summer is coming, my daughter is in need of capris. I couldn't wait to do a refashion on a pair of jeans for her. I found this pair of jeans last year in a garage sale for 25 cents! She wore them a couple times in the winter and now the snowman was ready to go. I am determined to get my 25 cents worth out of these pants. You can do the same with a pair around your house, from D.I./Goodwill, or garage sale. Not only can you make them into capris but for the winter you can add material to some high water pants and make them last a little longer.
Here you go.

1) Get a pair of jeans and cut them at desired length or skip this step if you are wanting to lengthen the pants.

Goodbye snowman!

2) Cut fabric 4 1/2 inches (toddler size) by WOF (Width of Fabric). For a baby size go 2 1/2 inches by WOF, little girl 61/2 inches by WOF.
Then trim WOF 20 inches on the the fold (make sure you line up the fold on the left side and cut off from the right side). Your strip of fabric should be 40 inches long when opened up.




3) Take one strip and line up the fabric right sides together and sew the 4 1/2 inches. Then zig zag stitch the raw edge to prevent fraying (sorry the below pic isn't good). You want your zig zag stitch as close together as possible.


4) You should have one big loop/band. Zig Zag stitch the bottom of the entire loop/band. Fold the zig zag stitch so that the fabric is wrong sides together and top stitch for a finished look at the bottom.


5) Now do a gather at the top of your band. I used Pink Fig's tutorial on gathering.

It will look like this when you are done.

6) Take your gathered ruffle and line it up with one leg of the jeans right sides together.

You can't see it but the jeans are directly underneath the ruffle. Remember, right sides together.

7) Finish raw edges. Then fold the finish edge upward on the inside and top stitch on the front (look at pic below). Repeat Steps 3-7 for the other leg.

I chose to add some ribbon (optional).

8) Last, I appliqued some fabric on top of the jeans. This too is optional.

TA-DAA!!!!

When my daughter woke up from her nap, she was so surprised! She said, "For me?? Thanks mommy!" Totally worth it!

My inspiration came from Pink Fig's Darling Jeans and this boutique I stumbled upon. Check out this boutique. They want $70.00 for a pair a jeans that you can make in an afternoon. Have fun! Send me your creations to strictlysewing@yahoo.com. I guess this is my first tutorial. I'm new at this so I am sure there will be lots of mistakes/questions. E-mail them to me and I will try my best to answer them.

Just had to share cat number 2.

No, it isn't a giant cat hiding behind trees. Unfortunately, those are weeds that were in our backyard. They are gone now. I'm referring to the weeds.

Have a great 3-day weekend!