Dolly and Me Yoga Pants Refashion

This refashion project was seriously one of the quickest and easiest I have ever accomplished.  I finished both pairs of pants in 1 hour. This is the perfect project for nap time crafting moms, or maybe for a aunt needs a last minute birthday gift for their lucky niece. 

It all started with me cleaning the winter clothes out of my dresser and closet. We have very little space (5 people share 1 closet and 2 dressers) so this season I am trying something new.

At the beginning of the winter I put a safety pin in the tag of every piece of winter clothing I owned. Whenever I wore something I took the pin out. This week I took all of the winter clothes out to get them ready for storage and anything with a safety pin still in it went into the refashion bin, or if it was in really bad shape, the recycling bin.

I was surprised to find that almost a quarter of my clothes still had safety pins in them. I can't believe I have been letting them take up such valuable real estate for so long.

The only problem was that my refashion bin was overflowing, so I got started on a project right away.

Making The Doll Pants

Karen Mom of Three's Craft Blog hosts a monthly doll clothes sew along that is usually very refashion friendly. This month's sew along was for yoga pants from the sleeve of a woman's shirt. I used a sweater knit three quarter sleeve black shirt with an interesting trim. It ended up in the bin because it was just a little to tight on me. (I had pictures of the original shirt and pants that I used but they accidentally got deleted.)

To make the doll pants, just follow the link on Karen's blog post for the tutorial.

This part of the project used up one sleeve and only 15 minutes of time. One sleeve didn't make much of a dent in my overflowing bin.

Next I grabbed a pair of my own black yoga pants out of the bin. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the pants. I just happen to own 5 pairs of plain black yoga pants so they never had a chance to make it into the rotation. I figured my daughter would love a pair of pants to match her doll.

I've never met a 6 year old girl doesn't love to dress like her doll!

Making the Girl Pants

This project used a little bit more time; about 45 minutes. I also used this printable pattern. (affiliate link) to get the size right.  

The first step is turning the pants into fabric. The waistband has to be cut off and saved for another project. Then, cut up the center of the pants as shown below.

This is my very high tech artistic drawing done in Windows Paint!

What is left is two legs. If you cut the inseam of the leg you now have two pieces of fabric with the outer seam still in tact.

Layer the two pieces of fabric on top of one another with right sides together, and the seams lined up. Then lay the leg pattern piece on top centered over the seam, and cut.

By the time I got to the waist band I didn't have a big enough piece of fabric left, so I grabbed the sweater knit top. The sweater had a lot more stretch than the pants so I cut this pattern piece two sizes smaller, and still had to take it in a little bit.

The rest is just a matter of following the instructions on the pattern. It goes together really easy.

You can see more pictures of my daughter playing with her doll on my Facebook page. It's a public page, but feel free to send me a friend request.

Great News! I have been accepted as a contributor to Refashion Co-Op. Look for more of my refashions there.

I am adding this post to Look What I made Wednesday