I finished these amazing Parsley Pants for Elliot this weekend. He kept commenting that they felt like pajamas. This is due partly to the elastic waistband, partly to the genius pattern design (like how I snuck that in? hee), and partly to the lovely fabric, which is a reversible double-cloth from Robert Kaufman that have a brown side and a plaid side. I honestly thought he would choose the brown side for the outside of the pants but no, it was all plaid, all the way. You can see both sides of this fabric, which is currently on sale, in the Imagine Gnats shop, by the way!

As you can see, there is no half-assing these pants; when you wear these it is a full-on commitment to the outfit. Luckily for my almost-9-year-old, he has a history of wearing Amazing Pants (here / here) so he’s used to the comments and attention. I’m quite interested (also, half worried) to see how his classmates respond if/when he wears them to school. He’s a confident and happy kid, but he’s also getting to that age where he cares what other people think, you know?

The Parsley Pants sewing pattern is a super-simple pant pattern with two pieces (right leg, left leg) with an elastic waistband, and then a whole bunch of “extras” to make the pants more interesting and fun (pintucks, tuxedo stripe, pockets, flat-front waistband). I designed this pattern because it seemed like there were only two types of pant sewing patterns for kids out there: super-simple (basically PJ’s), or super-detailed (multiple pieces, pockets, zippered flies, waistbands; basically, time-consuming or tricky), and I wanted something that would be easy and quick to make but still have some interesting variations. I love that you can customize them to your heart’s content.

For this pair, I added the pouch pockets with some brown piping. I’ve got a quick Piping Tutorial here on the blog if you’d like to make your own piping, but I used a store-bought package and prewashed it with my fabric to prevent it from shrinking when these are washed.

I basted the piping around the two curved edges of the pocket before sewing the pocket linings and pockets together. I love piping so much; it classes everything up; you might even remember this Piping Improves Everything post from Celebrate the BOY a few years back where I rounded up some great boy projects that feature piping.

There’s more great Parsley Pants in the photo pool, or you can check out the #parsleypants tag on Instagram to see what everyone else is making with this pattern!

Plaid Parsley Pants with Piping

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