Revamped Toddler Pants

So, I have these ultra worn-down pants I'm just so very attached to. They were my son's when he was 3 years old (my 2nd child) and...umm...he's 8 now...(nothing's wrong with that though...ha, I know what you're thinking...). I guess I've been hanging on to them because of the fond memories I have of him when he was oh soooo small and cute! Well anyway, now my daughter (my 3rd child) is about that age now and I thought I was time to revamp these for her.

These pair of pants look like they are in really bad shape...well they are...in really bad shape. But I thought I would still give it a go and see what happens. Keep in mind that I loved these pants so much that I had my son wore them frontwards and backwards...so, there are knee holes on both sides. Yikes! I know what you thinking but just watch what I can do to it! And if you're like hanging on to those no-so-lovely-full-of-memory-type-of-clothes, you can do it, too! So follow along and I'll let you in on how to extend the life of these nearly-impossibly-revampable munchkin pants.

First, I chopped off the elastic ends of the bottom of the pants. They had to go...too old school! Then I simply hemmed the bottoms with a contrasting zigzag stitch to add some visual appeal.

Then for a nice feminine touch, I decided to create heart-shaped applique knee pads. I sketched one side of a nice rounded heart on the fold of a paper. I made it large enough to cover those nasty holes and a bit more for durability. Cut out that template.

I placed the template on the worn-down knees to ensure it covered the entire area plus about 1 1/2 inch to 2 inches more around the tear.

When it all seemed good, I cut out 4 hearts, one for each good ol' hole. An easy way to do this is fold the fabric, place the template against the fold and then cut. I repeated this 3 more times.

Here's my lovely heart. I just love hearts! There sooo sweet and cute.

I cut a wide strip of interface, enough to cover all 4 of my hearts.

I then placed a large scrap piece of fabric, laid down the hearts right side down, covered it with interface and pressed with a medium heat iron. (Another way to do this is place your uncut fabric wrong side and interface glued side together, press and then cut out your shapes. This would be better but I was a little impatient and wanted to see the lovely hearts on the pants first...sorry...If you look at my applique tutorial on my Beginner Sewing Techniques page, you'll find the real technique). Anyway, I peeled off the interfaced hearts from the scrap fabric before it cooled.

And, it should look like this right side up.

Now after that, I cut out all the hearts.

Here they are! Aren't they lovely??

I placed the hearts on the hole and carefully pinned them down using straight pins.

Here comes the fun part....(like my yarn? So do I!).

I took colourful yarn and applied it to the edge of the hearts as I zigzag stitched along and around the hearts. Isn't that a neat idea? It adds enough colour for the applique to pop out!

I snipped off the yarn and I'm done one knee! Yeah! After that, I just repeated the steps again for the remaining 3 knee pads.

How do you like the finished look? Ok, so it's not professional or anything but its great for another season of playwear...until it'll be time to say goodbye for good. Oh, why do our munchkins have to grow up so fast?