Beach Pants for Clementine
For our family trip this summer, we rented a house on Lake Huron for a week. After last summer’s family trip to Amsterdam and her choir trip to Vienna and Prague this spring, Clementine requested a “Beach Vacation” rather than a “on-the-go-vacation” and that was honestly just fine with me. A relaxing week on the water sounded great.
Before we left, Clementine asked if I would make her a pair of white linen beach pants similar to a pair she had tried on at a store (a popular store with teens that shall remain unnamed due to their incredibly problematic sizing). Clementine helped me pick out a white linen fabric and we figured out how to modify the Luna pattern to create a pair of wide leg pants that looked almost identical to the original pair she liked. This involved adding a fold-over waistband at the top, widening the legs, and adding a drawstring.
Even though she didn’t do any of the sewing this time, I tried to involve her as much as possible so she could see what was involved in duping a ready-to-wear design. Like I’m not just a magician who magically makes pants appear. It takes time (specifically, mine), and the fabric plus labor cost is more than the original pants costed, due to the exploitation of foreign workers and the environment that allows RTW to be sold for such a low price. You know, this is tough…I do probably get too preachy about this but I also get that when you don’t have a ton of spending money, it’s incredibly appealing to buy a lot of clothing for very little. But I also want her to understand that there’s a hidden cost, and know her responsibility in all of that. Hopefully some of this ethos will stick with her and inform her clothing purchasing decisions as she gets older?
It was fun challenge to see how quickly we could turn it around. About week for the fabric to arrive, a day to wash and dry the fabric, and then I cut out the pants pieces the next evening and sewed them together the day after that. It took a few more days to hem them and get the fit just right for her, but since the design was super simple, it was pretty easy, overall. V. satisfying to make my kiddo something she really loves! Plus I have a little fabric left so I’m hoping I can make myself a shorts version of these for myself.
PS. I’m still taking a shipping break from my pattern shop until August 25th, but you can find my print patterns at various stockists throughout the US and UK, and of course PDF instant download patterns are always available.
Also wanted to let you know that I have Sapphire printing currently available in my shop as well (pattern pieces with or without printed instructions, shipped to you from Brooklyn Motif):
