chestnut pants

Do you remember my recent Instagram post of the pants I was making with the upside down cherries?  Well now I can finally share what I was making...

I was fortunate to pattern test recently for these fabulous slimline pants called the Chestnut Pants from Angela at Crafting Zuzzy. 

Even though Emily is now 2, her waist is quite slim so I made the 12-18m size and just tightened the elastic by about 1/2 inch.  I didn't need to touch the length at all.

The pants have a flat front waist and elastic in the back.  They also come with two different back pocket options.

My plan was to put red piping around the pockets, but that meant a trip to Spotlight with a 2 year old, so I skipped it!

And anyone that has tried to photograph a toddler will know that you need to give them something to hold...today's effort was a biscuit!

These pants are perfect for my busy toddler and I love the slimline legs!  I will be making many more of these for Emily as its such a quick and easy pattern.

Angela has a competition running on the Pattern Revolution site where you can win your own copy of this pattern, otherwise grab your copy from either Etsy or Craftsy.

Oh, and you didn't really notice the upside down cherries, did you?!?

How to Sew a Facing to a Sleeveless Bodice

When I first started designing the Penny Dress, I wanted little shoulder ruffles but I also wanted to have a facing (or lining) for the bodice only which gave me a construction problem as there is no back seam to this dress.

I know of the method of sewing a facing and leaving a shoulder unstitched to be able to pull it all through, but this method would not allow for the shoulder ruffles I wanted.

After searching and searching, I asked in a pattern designing group if there was a possibly different construction method that I could include my shoulder ruffles and the answer was YES!

The method was shown to me in pictures with an explanation, but being a visual person, I really needed to test this out quickly as I was like, whaaaaaat????

I did it slowly thinking that there was no way this was going to work, and it was seriously like a light bulb moment...something that seemed couldn't possibly work, was in actual fact quite easy!

So this is the method you will find in the Penny Dress PDF Pattern but you can certainly use this method for other designs as well. 

Once you try it, I think you'll be hooked...check out this YouTube clip for a clearer explanation.