Attempting Bloomers

  My little girls wear skirts and dresses all the time, and being young they like to throw their legs in the air and show off their diapers....Booper, who is 2, is learning to cover her legs with her skirt, but there isn't much you can do with a 6-month old. To help keep those little legs covered up I decided to make the little girlies some bloomers. Considering that they don't currently own any that fit, I don't have a pattern, and they don't own any pants or shorts, that turned out to be pretty complicated.

  First, I had to measure both girls, then look for a bloomer-from-scratch tutorial on the internet. Not finding one, I decided to start from a pants-from-scratch how-to, which meant I had to re-measure using the method in the how-to.
 
  The how-to required making a sloper for each girl, which entailed much marking, lining up, measuring, and math. 

  Once the slopers were made, I altered them into bloomer slopers by removing darts and pleats, adding to the width of the waist and legs to allow for elastic, and adding a little ease in the crotch area.

  All of that was a lot of work for something that looks so uncomplicated and easy-to fit. Since I didn't want to ruin my main fabric if they didn't work, I decided to check the fit on each daughter with a finished muslin.

  Turns out, I'm glad I did. Gaiw's bloomers were too short in the back to cover her bulky cloth diaper, and Booper's bloomers were too long in the legs.  You can see Booper's in the picture above... I want them to hit just above her knees. As you can see, I hemmed them and finished all the seams prettily, because I was hoping they would fit properly from the beginning, and I would be able to use them even in a plain fabric.

  I shirred the waist and leg openings on the bloomers because I didn't want to do casings this go-around, but my machine and shirring don't get along too well. Those bloomers didn't shrink anywhere near as much as I expected, even after steaming the thread. That is why Booper's bloomers are so loose-looking. That is also why there is only one picture of these terribly-fitting bloomers: I decided to throw them in the wash to see if it would help them shrink enough. We'll see if they are any better when they come out. If they aren't I won't be too upset since the fit was wrong.

  I altered the patterns in the areas that needed fixing, and now I'm about to embark on another trial of them... if this new pattern is right I will use it on a project I've been stewing over for a while. Hope it works!

Thanks for stopping by,