The Happy Living Shop: great idea's for living a happy joyfull life!

Last month I decided to use up some fabric from my tiny stash. Because of the size of the fabric there where few options and I choose to make a funky pair of trousers for my 18 month old daughter. The pattern I used is called Dortje and is available for purchase via Farbenmix.de or you can find it in the book Sewing Clothes Kids Love from Nancy Langdon. I used the latter.

After choosing the fabrics and reaching the sewing stage I was a little worried the trousers would end up look rather clownish. I wanted to add ruffles, however would that make it even worse? I then decided to just take the gamble and, following the advise in the book, go overboard. So I added ruffles around the knee sections (which are rather big on this size, because I took up the trousers a little to fit my daughters height) and around the waist.

Ready to add ruffles... or not?!?

 
To make the ruffles I followed the advice in the book again. And used my sewing machine to sew a double line of thread, then pull one. It’s a technique that is quite effective and easy to do. You do however need to take care not to break the thread (obviously). A good tutorial can be found on the Divine Caroline site. Be sure to check out their craft section, it’s got nice ideas!

Anyway here is the finished item. I still have some crochet flowers and butterflies (made from embroidery floss, see pic above) to add to the pockets. Although they are very over the top I think they work very well and my daughter seems to like them. She loves butterflies and happy colours. Not bad for a stash buster!

Girly ruffles for a cool look

More ideas for ruffles on the See Kate Sew Blog!

Tutorials for crochet items used on trousers:

• African Flower tutorial via Craft Passion
• Pretty double flower tutorial from Attic 24
• Little Birdy secrets shares the crochet butterfly tutorial!