Teddy Trousers or How to make a pants pattern bigger

Pantless Teddy

Okay, so on Monday afternoon I was informed of a Teddy Bear Tea Party my son's class was having on Wednesday (today). Monday night he picked the Teddy he wanted to take and proceeded to tell me he needed some pants. Tuesday afternoon I made a pattern and set it aside. Tuesday night when I sat down to sew the pants I realized my pattern had been too small and I already cut the material. I didn't want to waste it so this is a method I've used before for some pants I've made for Peanut. I'll just let you know now, I make a lot of pants! So sometimes I fly through them so quick I don't realize I missed vital information new sewers might find useful. I always make my own pattern for the kids because it's so super easy, I pretty much just measure their waist, inseam and waist height then draw a rough pattern on some folded newspaper or poster board and fold the fabric so there will be two exact matches and cut. Then sew the curves open so I get legs and sew up the in seam. Hem, drawstring, and elastic and whatever else needs to be done, find a kid and put them on it. I pretty much did the same thing for the Teddy.

This is my to-small pattern/pieces.

Take your to-small pattern/pieces and cut them in half.

Now make another pattern piece the same height as the to-small pattern/pieces and add how ever much more space you need to make it work. In this case I did two inches because I needed it to be about 3-1/2 inches bigger when finished.

Now sew that piece in between the two halfs. Repeat on other pattern piece.

Now continue with you new pieces just as you would have with the original pieces.
And now Teddy is ready for his party. I think he kind of looks like James Dean!