Summer capris (aka hobbit pants)

Time for more toddler pants! Sometimes it seems they're the only thing I sew. They do have a way of working up to the top of the to-do list simply by necessity, as store-bought pants never seem to fit my little one. It also seems that most of the shorts out there these days are very short, and don't provide any coverage for sun protection or knee-scrapes.

So I made up these hobbit length pants for our little curly headed kiddo who, when wearing said pants, appears to have just walked out of the shire.

I used the same Quick Change Trousers pattern from Anna Maria Horner that I've used for every pair of pants since I bought her book. Instead of making them reversible, I just used one layer. The double layer of the reversible pants is a little heavy for warm summer days (warm summer days, where are you?) I also left out the back yoke for simplicity's sake, and shortened them up for beach walks and breeziness.

I also tried my hand at front pockets for the first time. I used this great tutorial from Dana at Made. I altered the pocket pattern to make it small enough for the amount of fabric I had left. The fabric for the blue pants is the remainder of a piece I found at Scrap, and the khakis are from a thrifted pillow case. She had a smaller pair from the matching pillow case last summer, and they were her most worn pants. They matched everything, hid the dirt, and were light and airy and soft and comfy. There are so many patterns out there for pillow case dresses, but they work great for little pants too. If you cut them right, you don't even have to hem them!

Summer days, we're ready for you!