Heart and Hearth Crafts

The Rough and Tumble pants sewing pattern from Peek-A-Boo Patterns is packed with features that make them perfect for rough and tumble play. I’m all about well designed, hard wearing kids clothes that leave children free to really play and grow. So of course Rough and Tumble are my favourite pants sewing pattern.

But sometimes my kids want a pair of shorts instead. Keep on reading to see how I hack Peek-A-Boo Pattern’s Rough and Tumble Pants sewing pattern into shorts.

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Rough and Tumble Pants Sewing Pattern

Let’s get stuck into all those features I mentioned! Peek-A-Boo Pattern’s Rough and Tumble pants are absolutely packed full of really well designed features to make them more hardwearing as well as being practical for kids that really play.

There’s the elasticated waistband to make getting dressed easier. Honestly, I don’t understand why this isn’t more of a thing? Bring able to dress themselves gives a child so much confidence and autonomy over their appearance. But for me the best part is how easy it makes my mornings! Selfish I know. But why oh why are so many clothes sized for young children so complicated to get on and off??!

Then there’s the reinforced knee patches. They can be sewn in a contrasting fabric for a fun feature or neatly hidden inside the pants if that floats your boat. Why don’t more kids pants have this? If you’ve got a crawler, knee skidder type of kid this one feature could double the life of a pair of pants.

The leg cuff can be made elasticated or with a standard pant hem. The elasticated cuff would make the pants “grow with me” to some extent. While the pants are too long the elasticated leg cuff would hold them neatly out of the way, until the wearer grows a little taller. Getting two sizes of wear out of the one pair of pants would make them even better value.

My favourite feature of this sewing pattern is the pockets. Oh the pockets! Any parent knows how important pockets are for collecting treasures. The rough and tumble pants have four reasonably sized pockets. Like actual, fit a whole child’s hand in them sized pockets. There’s two patch pockets on the front and two welt pockets on the back.

There’s an optional faux drawstring for the waistband and a faux fly which I think is a lovely touch. The faux fly is just oh so cute.

All these different features make Peek-A-Boo Pattern’s Rough and Tumble pants extremely versatile to wear but also to sew. I like to adapt the design to suit the fabric I have availible. As long as I have enough fabric for the main legs of the pants I can add or leave out features according to the scraps of fabric I have left over. Not enough fabric for the pockets? No problem! The cuffs can even be sewn from contrasting fabric, as can the pockets and knee patches. So this sewing pattern has become one of my favourite stash busters.

New to Digital Sewing Patterns?

Digital sewing patterns are fantastic for kids clothes because you just print the size you want, no tracing or messing about trying to preserve the larger sizes of the pattern for using as your child grows.

They generally come with loads of different options and a wider size range than traditional paper sewing patterns. Most of the digital sewing patterns I own go all the way up to the teenage years.

For me one of the huge benefits of using digital sewing patterns over their paper counterparts is space. I can keep as many digital patterns as I like on a tiny hard drive taking up hardly any space in my sewing room. My traditional paper sewing patterns have to squeeze into a box on a shelf. I don’t feel guilty keeping that digital pattern that I’ll probably never find the time to use because it doesn’t take up any resources in my home. That paper dress pattern on the other hand – that has to justify the space it takes up.

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Rough and Tumble Shorts Pattern Hack

On this occasion I actually didn’t have enough fabric leftover to sew a pair of pants but I had a piece that was too big to throw away. I had plenty of scraps of fabric for the waistband and a couple of pockets but not a big enough piece for the legs.

So I took my copy of the Rough and Tumble Pants pattern pieces and folded the pant legs up. I made sure that I folded the pattern at an exact right angle to the grain line of the fabric. And I also made sure that I measured the same distance on both leg pattern pieces so that they were both the same length.

I would have preferred the shorts to be a bit longer than they are, but I was working with the fabric I had availible.

I’m delighted with the result and the knowledge that I’ve put this otherwise useless fabric to good use.

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Sewing Fabric

I live in jeans. I love how comfortable, yet smart (ish) and most of all how hardwearing they are. So I kind of assume that my kids want to wear jeans too. I’m not so sure that’s true but I keep making them jeans. I’m not sure that denim was such a good fabric choice for the Rough and Tumble pants pattern. It was pretty tough to work with but I persevered through a few broken needles and I’m really pleased with the results.

I’ve chosen this fun rocket ship print which my Little Man will love.

I decided to skip the contrasting thread of top stitching and instead went with a very dark navy thread.

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Sewing Notions

I use cheap and cheerful elastic for the elasticated waistband.

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Sewing an Elasticated Channel

Elasticated channels such as on a waistline or sleeve cuff are easy to sew and comfortable to wear. They are great for sewing children’s clothes because you can stitch a size bigger than the child needs and the elasticated channel will hold the garment in place comfortably as the child grows.

Follow these simple steps to sewing your own elasticated channels.

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Top Stitching

I used a twin needle for the topstitching. It creates two perfectly parallel lines of stitching, just like you see on a lot of commercial garments. It makes such a professional looking finish for virtually no extra effort. You just need an extra reel of thread for the second needle. Easy peasy and such a great feature.

Top stitching is stitches that will remain visible on the front side of the garment. They are used to hold a hem or patch pocket in place. Top stitching is also sometimes used to anchor seam allowances to a garment, this makes the seams stronger and adds definition to a garment.

Follow these simple instructions for perfect top stitching.

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More Peek-A-Boo Patterns Sewing Projects

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I hope you have enjoyed reading about my adventures in sewing.

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Pin It Now, Sew It Later

I do hope my sewing project has inspired you to have ago at sewing your own Rough and Tumble Shorts.

Pop this post in your Pinterest board so you can find it later.

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