Banded Pants Tutorial

How to redraft pant’s patterns to add a banded bottom

Every fall, these adorable banded pants fill my inbox and Instagram feed. They’re often paired with appliquéd knit shirts, Peter Pan collared shirts, turtle necks, or sweatshirts. Made for both boys and girls they seem like the perfect cold-weather staple. I love the look of them, comfortable, versatile and classic. This year I decided to make them myself. I used Spechler Vogel corduroy from Farmhouse Fabrics. I found that I was able to make two pair of pants for the price of one of these pair.

After watching the Children’s Corner Sew Along on banded Parker Shorts it occurred to me that this was a great starting place to get the look I wanted. In the Sew Along, Susan shows you how to redraft the shorts so that they are less tapered and allow for more width at the bottom of the short so that it can be “gathered” into a band. In order to use the Parker’s Pants pattern to make the pants I wanted, I would have to do something similar.

In order to create more width at the bottom of the pant leg and to make my life a little easier, I cut my pattern pieces out as seen below. I laid the front and back pieces directly next to one another (thanks to my friend Margy for this tip). This eliminates the need for a side seam while adding width to (and removing the taper from) the bottom of the pant leg. After measuring my son, I determined that I needed to cut the pant leg along the cutting line for View C (the ruffle version). This may vary for each child but definitely worked for Robby.

After cutting out two of these, I then sewed the crotch seams. I used a French seam to do this. I find that French seams on pants tend to hold better and rip less often with my wild children. In the image below you can see that I sewed the front and back crotch seams wrong sides together first. I then trimmed them and sewed them right sides together as well.

I then added gathering stitches to the bottom of the pants legs. I did this by sewing two lines of lengthened stitches to the bottom of each pant leg. I then sewed the pants legs together using a French seam as well. Make sure to sew the front to the back or you end up with a giant skirt. Ask me how I know.

After this, I gathered up my pants legs and added a band to the bottom of each pant leg. I got the measurement for the band by measuring the bottom of one of Robby’s existing pairs of pants. You can see the measurements I chose below.

To create the band I folded and pressed my fabric in half with the long ends touching one another. Then unfolded the band. I then refolded one long end to the previous press mark and pressed again.

I then sewed my band together at the short ends, with the right sides together. I pressed this seam open.

That created the band. At that point, I sewed the band to the bottom the leg of the pant, right sides together, along the non-pressed edge with a quarter inch seam allowance. Naturally, I forgot to take pictures of this process but Susan does a fantastic job of explaining how to add a band to the shorts on their Sew Along. If you need help with adding the band to the bottom of the pant leg I highly recommend watching their video. It is the exact same process to add it to the bottom of pants. You can start at about minute 8.

I then folded down and sewed my waist casing, added my elastic (using the same measurements found in the pattern) and was finished! Below you can see images from my first “practice” banded pants.

Some things to consider:

• if you are not using corduroy or a heavier weighted fabric to make these pants, you may consider adding an interfacing to the band of the pants for stability.
• if Parker’s Pants don’t fit your child very well, try taking out or adding in width and length.
• you can also try this with other pants patterns. I used Bonnie Blue’s Hallie Pattern to make Maria similar banded pants. This pattern comes with the front and back already attached to one another so there is no redrafting involved.

Random tip on sewing with corduroy: it has a “direction” pretend you are wearing the garment and run your hands down from the top of the garment to the bottom, this is typically the direction you want the nap of the fabric to run. It should feel soft when you run your hands this way. Make sure all of your pattern pieces are cut out with this “direction” in mind.