The Tale of the Sand Piper

I saved the best for last.
I adore the Clever Charlotte Sand Piper Top and Capri and couldn't wait to make them for Zara.

The top was perfect!

But the capri pants.....


You guessed it-We made them-They didn't fit.
To be fair Zara and Elsa are 12 and have very curvy derrieres',it was just asking too much of a children's size 8.

The legs gaped far too much and Zara's knicker's showed when she sat down. As she has a little waist the back of the pants sat too far away from her back.

If I moved the front sections down to create a waist the legs opened up more.
I would have put them away for Lidia-but there were tears!


So I had a little ponder and came up with this idea......

I used a scrap of wide elastic and stitched a casing as shown above on the back of the capri pants.

I carefully unpicked the centre back seam above the casing.

I eased the elastic into one side of the casing and pinned it in position for stitching.

After stitching,I pulled the elastic hard and pinned in place. I did this to get as much elastic as I could to ease into the other side of the casing.

As you did before,ease the elastic into the casing as far as you can and pin in place for stitching.

The elastic stitched in place.

Slipstitch the back seam closed.

Voila! A neat finish with ease to sit.

And an acceptable leg opening!
Please note my daughters have curvy 'young woman' shaped legs. On a younger child the capri would wrap more around the leg.

When I made my ties I decided to add a short piece of elastic to the twill tape end that attaches to the front pant to tie around the back.

The elastic gives some ease when sitting down and Zara reports the are very comfortable.

Now for the reveal.....

You did know they were reversible?

That they have fabulous bow cuffs?

Also reversible.

Love a good bow!

Don't forget the divine complimentary label!

This way?

Or this way?

By the way,if you need a little help with the construction Charlotte has a clever tutorial on her blog here.

Thanks for dropping in!

PS(Have I mentioned the new patterns are up on the blog)

Clever Charlotte!