Clothing

Kids grow so quickly. Sometimes it feels like I’ve just sewn or otherwise procured a garment for my kids and it is already small for them. Or stained. Or ripped.

That’s why I love quick refashioning sewing hacks to make clothes for children as quickly as possible. Oh yeah, I also love saving money that way.

And one of the most well-known and easy refashions is to turn old pants into shorts. This is truly one of the most simple sewing transformations possible.

And even better than a single refashion, is a DOUBLE refashion! Because the shorts that I’m showing in this tutorial were originally sweatshirts! (Check out my super convenient tutorial on how to make pants from sleeves here!)

And in addition to their being a double refashion, the holes in the knees were also patched up. Afterwards, of course, the other knees also tore. (Find out how to make homemade patches with machine appliqué here.)

How quick it is to turn old pants into shorts! And so easy that it’s a perfect project for beginners! And everyone loves getting a little more wear out of clothing that would otherwise end up in the trash, right? Even if the ones I show here are not the most gorgeous shorts in the world (the pants having been used a LOT), they are great for my little boy to play outside and get sweaty and dirty in!

Ready to prepare a bunch of summer clothes for your kids from their outgrown pants? Let’s get started!

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It’s fall again and I’m having the same problem I have every. Single. Year. My kids have no pants that fit them correctly.

Both of my children are average height, but are very thin. This doesn’t create many problems in the summer because shorts and skirts don’t have to be long. However, when it’s time to wear long pants (or trousers for you British folk) again, we find that all their pants that fit fine in the spring are now too short. And most store-bought pants that are long enough for them are too wide in the waist for their long, thin build.

So either my kids go to school with ridiculously short pants (which doesn’t bother them, but it does bother me), I buy them some new ones (which rarely fit properly and anyway I decided years ago not to buy any new clothing), or I sew them new ones. However I’m usually particularly busy with the hectic start of the school year, and have a hard time finding time to find a pattern, modify it to fit their thin bodies, and cut it out.

That’s when this comes to the rescue: old sweatshirts. Because adult sweatshirts have sleeves that are a great length for pants for young kids (up to about age 5) and they already have a wonderfully comfortable cuff at the bottom. (Or, if not a cuff, a finished edge, like in the pair seen below.) So your discarded clothing (or a super cheap thrifted sweatshirt, like this one that I bought for €1 to make my son’s Minion costume) can become fantastic sweatpants for your child!

They’re so comfortable for kids to play in and you don’t even need a pattern to make them! You can simply use a pair of pants that fit as a cutting guide!

What a time-saver! Last year I made four pairs of these pants in about one hour and my boy was set for that season’s pants!  (Yes, that is a patch of white hair my son has. He was born with it. I didn’t bring him to the hairdresser to do it, as some people have asked me!)

So what are you waiting for? Let’s make pants from sleeves for your children!

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