Free Tutorial Tuesday: Roxanne's Rumba Pants

It's that time again...Free Tutorial Tuesday! Aren't you so proud of me for trying to be on time? I am on time right???

Are you ready to be blown away with our incredibly unique AND cute tutorial today? You better sit down for this one because it's super duper cute! 

Introducing Roxanne's Rumba Pants. TA DA...

Cute right? I bet you've never seen anything like them have you? We try to tell you guys that we LOVE ruffles and over-the-top boutique designs and hopefully this helps you realize that we are serious! No joke. Can't get more ruffly than this! This design stemmed from our love of the rumba pants and our hate for sewing and sewing and sewing ruffles on those darn pants. All. Day. Long. So here's OUR take on the Rumba pants. Best part? You can sew these puppys in about 30 min. to 1 hour! Take that Rumba Pants! In this pattern we will teach you how to add ruffle fabric to already owned, leggings, jeans, or shorts to create a fun and unique look! However, if you happen to own our Layne's Ruffled Shorts PDF Pattern then you can make your own shorts and modify them to be these using any amazing fabric you have lying around! Here though, we are using boot leg knit pants from Target and Frilly Double Stretch Ruffle Fabric from RuffleFabric.com.

Difficulty Level: Advanced Beginner--working with ruffle fabric can be tricky

Material Needed: 

• A pair of bottoms of your choice 
• Ruffle Fabric
• Scissors or Rotary Cutter and Cutting Mat
• Ruler
• Pins
• Thread
• 3/4” Elastic

Size of Ruffle Fabric to Cut (Cut 3--one for each color):

12-18 mos.- 4" (Inseam: 11.5")
2T- 4.5" (Inseam: 13")
3T- 4.75" (Inseam: 14")
4T- 5.5" (Inseam: 16")
5T- 6" (Inseam: 17.5")

6- 6.5" (Inseam: 19")

 *Note that these measurements are based on standard inseams for each size which we listed in parenthesis.

Step 1: Take the bottoms of your choices and lay them out on a flat surface making sure everything is flat and smoothed out. For all sizes we are going to measure down from the center crotch seam 1" as shown to the left and draw a line. Cut along the line when finished.

Step 2: Now we have to measure the leg opening because all bottoms differ in width. Turn your bottoms inside out, take the ruler and measure the width of the leg, seam and all. Once you have that figured out, multiply it by two. For example, our bottom leg opening measured 6.5" across. Since there is a front and back to a leg, we need to multiply 6.5" by 2. When multiplied, we get 13". As long as you turned your bottoms inside out as be have, you do not have to add a seam allowance to this measurement as it should already have been calculated in.

Step 3: Now we will begin constructing the pants legs! Begin by taking the bottom of the first ruffle piece and the top of you second ruffle piece and pin them with the right sides together. Once pinned, sew them together. Make sure to keep the ruffles down so that they do not get sewn in while sewing the pieces together!

Step 4: Repeat Step 3 by pinning and sewing the bottom of the second ruffle piece and top of the third ruffle piece.

We should now have two pieces that looks similar to this .





 

Step 5: Once all three tiers are sewn together, we are going to take that piece and fold it in half width wise. It may help to hold the top of the pant leg piece up at the top and shake it gently so that all the ruffles kind of fall into place. Slowly start pinning the ruffle fabric all the way down so that the ruffles are lined up and facing one another. We will want each row of ruffles to match up perfectly. Repeat with the second leg.

Step 6: Now we will sew down the side to create the leg. It is best to sew in the direction that ruffles in the ruffle fabric are laying, this SHOULD be from the top of the pant leg to the bottom of the pant leg! Repeat with the second leg.

Step 7: We are now on the final step! For this last step we are going to take our ruffle fabric pieces and pin the top of them to the bottom of our shorts. Again , pin in place slowly to ensure the ruffles do not get caught.

Once they are pinned all the way around, we can attach them by sewing in place. 

And that's it! Pretty straight forward and super easy! Here's another pic of it completed on Natalie. Sassy. 

The Frilly Double Stretch Ruffle Fabric really is what MAKES these pants. You will not get the same full effect if you do not use it. Don't get us wrong it will still be super cute, it just won't look as full as these. 

Big thank you to Positively Whimsy for the gorgeous hair piece and My Bead Bakery for the presh necklace <3

As always, we'd LOVE to see what you create from our Free Tutorial Tuesdays so feel free to snap a pic and share it with us on Facebook. If you like what you see here and want to see what patterns we offer, check out our website: CreateKidsCouture.com

Happy Sewing!
Shannon and Tiffany