Applique Baby Trousers

Some handme down trousers - appreciated, but oh, so boring. What to do?

My friend Elona's having a baby - she knows it's going to be a boy from the scan. Like all mothers-to-be she's busy preparing for the big event - which for Elona will be in April. Of course cost is a factor and like many mums she's also been give handme-downs from other members of the family. One of these was this pair of cord trousers for age 6 months. Now there's loads of wear left in them, but let's be honest here, they are BORING.

What to do? Customise of course - and some applique seemed to fit the bill perfectly. I found an elephant template that I'd downloaded from the web at some point and cut out the body from a sweet vintage fabric and his ear in contrast red gingham. How cute....

Trusty bondaweb secured everything in place and I machine zig-zagged the ear to the body. Sadly this wasn't an option for the body as the trousers were too small to fit over the sewing machine base, even with the main part removed. But red blanket stitch with three strands of embroidery floss looked really stylish .....

... and some red gingham ribbon around the trouser leg hems finished them off nicely. The only tricky bit was machining the ribbon - the legs were so narrow it was hard to keep from sewing through the back as well as the front.

I think they look really cool - and designer too. Alexander's going to be a very funky baby!