I haven’t done much sewing lately, but I did do a small project recently that I thought I would share with you. My daughter dressed up like Dora the Explorer for Halloween this year. The costume was pretty easy to put together, except for finding a pair of orange pants, so I decided to make those.
Meet Dora
I scoured my stash of Ottobre Design magazines and found the perfect pattern for orange sweat pants. I used pattern #16 from the 1/2004 issue. Because my daughter is tall and slim, I traced size 122 for width (based on her hip measurement) and size 134 for length.
The finished pants – the waist is pretty narrow.
The finished pants fit very nicely except for one small problem. Apparently the pattern is designed for stretchy fabrics, and it turns out sweatshirt fleece is not stretchy. The end result is the waistband didn’t stretch at all (even though there was elastic in it) and I could barely pull the pants up over her bum. I really had to yank hard. So, the pants were fine for a one-time wearing, but not for continued use.
The pants fit nicely once they get pulled up.
I have had a very difficult time finding lounge pants for my daughter this year (they are either too short or too wide), so I am going to adjust this pattern a bit and make her a couple more pairs of sweat pants. I found some nice sweatshirt fleece at a local fabric store.
Sweatshirt fleece for more pants.
I will share my adjustments with you if they work out!
From Scratch 
They turned out really cute. Had to laugh about the ‘bum’ issue! Good luck with your adjustments. 🙂