Super quick and easy up-cycled toddler tracksuit – PART 1 Tracksuit Pants

This is the finished product in action

I was on my way to my workroom this afternoon to get started on the tutorial pictures for a lovely little size one hoodie (which I will get around to so stay tuned), when my husbands bag of clothes for charity caught my eye.

I had a bit of a rummage and found a tracksuit top that I just couldn’t resist doing a conversion on. I also found a few other pieces that will probably feature in future posts (so much for making more space in our appartment).

I had a play around and it turned out really well so I thought I would share. This is a fun and super easy project – the finished product looks much fancier than the sewing involved.

Although this is about a 15 min project if you sew a lot, and around 30 min if you don’t, It turns out that it takes a lot longer than that to explain (or maybe I am just a bit wordy) So I have broken this down into 2 parts. Part one is the tracksuit pants.

Ok, so this is what I started with:

Man's Tracksuit top

The thing that is make or break on this project is the neckline of the original top. If it is not something similar to this one it will probably work out too big for your little ones head, so choose your top wisely. This was a (generous) medium size.

Other things you will need:

The pattern. This pattern is a size 1.

A piece of elastic the correct length for your little ones waist
Matching sewing machine thread(or something that will be inconspicuous anyway:) and
All the other normal stuff – sewing machine, over locker (could do without this but it is much easier with it) scissors pins etc.

So first things first, print out the pattern, and cut it out.

Next thing is to cut out the pattern pieces – this is a lot easier to show than it is to write instructions for so check out the pics below for which parts of the original top you need to cut each of the pattern pieces from.

Cut the pants pattern from the sleeves of the top

Cut the pants pattern piece from the sleeves of the top (the wrists of the top form the ankles of the pants)

Repeat for the other leg of the pants

Cut pattern pieces for pants

OK, so on to sewing. These instructions are written as though you have an overlocker, if you don’t you will just need to sew this with your sewing machine as you would any other stretch fabric.

Overlock the inner leg seam crotch to ankle

To make the pants. Turn the pieces inside out and overlock the inner leg seam from the crotch to the ankle as shown in the pic (I left the wristbands of the top intact so I only needed to sew down to where I started cutting). Repeat for both legs.

Slide one leg inside the other and then overlock the crotch seam

Then turn one leg in the right way and then slide it into the other leg so that the right sides are together and the crotch seam lines up, as shown in the picture. These pants are the same front to back so you don’t need to worry about which side is the front.

Now overlock the seam all the way around.

Finish the top raw edge

Next, turn turn the pants inside out and finish the top raw edge.

Create an elastic casing

Create a casing for the elastic by folding the waist over about 3cm and sewing all the way around, close to the edge. (I do this with a double needle on my sewing machine, it gives a really great finish) Remember to leave a gap to insert your elastic.