Solution for Too-Short Pants

My three-year old is tall. And skinny. He fits into a 3T very well but that size is often too short. But we have several pairs of 3T pants that a friend gave us that he barely wore in the spring. I wanted to lengthen them so he can wear them this fall. 

I had tons of ideas on how to lengthen clothing...for girls. Add a ruffle, some lace, some ric rack? All great, but not for boys. So this is how I added some roll-up cuffs. I re purposed some other jeans and a pair of plaid shorts to make the cuffs. 

1. Measure the cuffs of the pants. I needed the finished cuff (not including seam allowance) to be 6" wide. I added 1/2" for seam allowance.

2. I cut my fabric. I took apart a pair of worn out jeans. I used seams from the worn out jeans' leg to make the new seam of the bottom of the cuff. I cut the pieces of jeans to 14" wide and 5 1/2" tall (that way I would only need one seam on the side in the jeans.) The shorts were cut to 7" wide and 5 1/2" tall. 

3. I sewed the plaid fabric into a tube. (Right sides together).

4. I sewed the denim fabric into a tube as well. 

5. I put the tubes together. Wrong sides were together at this point to hide the stitching. I tucked the plaid fabric tube under the hem of the jeans' leg (will be the new cuff).

6. I pinned...

7. ...sewed a double hem at the bottom...and I also zig-zagged the top of the cuff. It will be inside the pant leg, but I didn't want it to unravel.

8. Then I positioned the new cuff at the bottom of the existing hem of the jeans. Place it so that the denim side is out. Sew it into place using the hem that is already there as a guide. 

Then, you just flip the cuff up past the existing hem, and the pants are longer. You can stitch the cuff in place. Repeat for the other leg.

I was so happy to have 'saved' a pair of pants. 

Or maybe I should be happy to have 'saved' my sweet child from wearing high-waters. Or whatever they're called. And I saved money. {Or at least I didn't spend any.}