Ottilia Sews! Velour Sweatpants Tutorial

Our Ottilia Sews! series for novice sewers continues with this detailed photo tutorial for City Mouse velour sweatpants. The comfortable velour sweatpants have a wide rib waistband and wide bottom-leg cuffs, which help the pants stay in place on a lively child.

You will find the patterns for these pants in our OTTOBRE design® Autumn issue 4/2011 in sizes 62-68-74-80-86-92 cm. Take a look at pages 50-51 and 26 for detailed instructions!

HOW TO SEW CITY MOUSE VELOUR SWEATPANTS

MATERIALS
  - 40-45-45-50-55-60 cm turquoise
    velour knit (CO/PES)
  - 20-35-35-35-35-35 cm green and
    5 cm turquoise ribbing (CO/EL) width 90 cm
  - small piece of interfacing

CUTTING
Cut pants panels from velour knit and cut waistband and bottom-leg cuffs from green ribbing as indicated on list of pattern pieces. Cut also 3.5 cm wide and 70…80 cm long strip from turquoise ribbing for drawstring.

SEWING
Construction techniques: Stitch leg seams with serger or with overedge stretch stitch on regular sewing machine.

Joining: Pin pants front and back panels together and stitch leg inseams.

Stitch crotch seam.

Stitch side seams. Leave pants inside out.

Stitch side edges of each bottom-leg cuff together to form circles. Fold cuffs in half, wrong sides together.

Place cuffs inside pants legs, right sides together, and align their seams with pants inseams. Stitch cuffs to bottom edges of legs.

Waistline: Mark waistband into quarters. Mark placement of buttonholes on waistband. Iron piece of interfacing to wrong side of waistband under buttonhole markings. Stitch buttonholes on waistband.

Stitch side edges of waistband together to form circle. Fold band in half, wrong sides together.

With pants inside out, pin waistband to pants waist edge, right sides together, aligning seam on waistband with pants center-back seam and quarter marks on waistband with pants side and center-front seams.

Stitch waist seam with straight stitch and finish it with serger or zigzag stitch.

Turn pants right side out. Fold waist seam allowances downward and topstitch waist seam using presser foot edge as guide.

Fold and press drawstring strip in three and stitch along the middle of strip with flatlock stitch on serger or with suitable decorative overedge stitch on regular sewing machine (e.g. honeycomb stitch or three-step zigzag).

Insert drawstring into waistband through buttonholes. Pin drawstring to midpoint of center-back seam on waistband and stitch it in place through all layers. Shorten ends of drawstring if necessary. Turn ends of drawstring under, stitch with straight stitch approx. 1 cm from end and trim excess seam allowance off close to stitching.

All done. Congratulations. Pants completed!