question

Those commercial patterns are designed for baby elephants. Always have been. You will need either to do some major pattern alteration (I remember making my DD some things in size 6 width and size 10 length) or buy some children's size pattern drafting software. Length is easier to adjust than width.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Olwyn Mary is right, they are not meant for skinny short kids, I always have to adjust the pattern for DD, who is going into grade 1! I was especially amused by the comment about baby elephants!

Michelle Giordano

Thanks. I have a skinny tall boy and a skinny, tiny daughter....the clothes for DD still come from infants/toddlers section of the pattern books (she's almost 22 months and is just now wearing 18m clothes, but I still have to take in the waist!!). I'm not so much worried with width as they both prefer elastic right now, the length just made me laugh...before DS tried them on, he held them up - to get the bottoms of the legs just touching the floor, the waist was at his shoulders!!!

Larisa

Doug&Michelle wrote:

Sizes for RTW clothing and patterns bear little or no relation to each other or to the age of the actual child. Yup, you need to read the measurements.

In article , CNYstitcher of Road Runner uttered

Why not put them on a shelf and recut some new ones, certainly more time-saving and less problems than re-cutting them wasting fabric? After all elastic waist pants can be sewn in about an hour, and maybe another 20 minutes or so sewing on cargo pockets. Five of my GC are tall and skinny, as were their parents. The other one is not 5 feet tall, and very tiny at age 17. Emily

i just had the waist done and marked where to cut them so he had *some* room to grow....only had to take off 5 inches...lol..yep, next time I'll get accurate measurements, even if it means that I have to wait until he is asleep...lol

Larisa

CypSew wrote:

"I know, I should have gotten his measurements first, but he was in school when I started working on these. "

If you're child has a well fitting pair of pants in his drawer, you can measure them and make up the size which is matches the measurements.

Kitty

...he thinks it's

Sizing is iffy on kids clothing. It is verry discouraging. Someone mentioned baby elephants. Try gorillas. The arm length on some patterns is quite bizarre. I once cut five inches off the sleeves on a size one toddler pattern. Think about it. Maybe it would have worked for a baby chimpanzee but not for a baby human.

I have several patterns marked "cute but terminally blocky" where I had to take three inches off the side seams -- on a size 5 child's tunic. I just don't understand it.

The only children's patterns that I have had good luck with have been the Kwik Sew patterns. They are consistently well-designed and the sizes make some sense. I am a big fan of that pattern company. I either use those patterns or copy their favorite clothes when I make my girls clothes now. It saves me time because I get something that is close right the first time around.

Oh, I did break form and use one of the big three for a halter top. I had to take three inches out at the side seams again. You would think I would learn....;-)

Go for Kwik Sew. They are harder to find but worth it.

Marilyn

Larisa,

We used to make growth tucks in girls' skirts of about 1" doubled (2" in all). Usually these were about 4" parallel to the skirt hem. If done with a chain stitch, it was really easy to let them out when the girl grew tall enough. Could you not stitch a similar tuck in each pant leg above the knee? These days cargo pants are so fashionable. The tucks above the knee would look in style IMHO, similar to cargo pants..

Shar>Thanks. I have a skinny tall boy and a skinny, tiny daughter....the