Oliver + S Class Picnic Blouse and PANTS

Hello, everyone!  Hope your week is off to a good start!  Mine is so far...

Today I'm sharing with you my latest completed project--an Oliver + S Class Picnic Blouse and Pants set.

Yes, I said pants and not shorts!  If you are at all familiar with the Oliver + S Class Picnic Blouse and Shorts pattern, then you know it is for a blouse and pair of shorts like the ones I made here this past summer.  Ella loves her shorts outfit, so I thought I would make her a fall ensemble using the same O + S pattern but make pants instead.

First, let me talk to you about the blouse.  After taking Anna's class on details at the Sewing Summit, I decided to add a few extras to this blouse. Notice the hunter green piping along the front as well as the two blue buttons.  Plus, I sewed a band to the sleeve edges in the same fabric I used for the front and back facings.  I think these details definitely enhance the visual interest of this blouse.

Isn't this girl just precious?  

Ok, here I must admit a mistake I made in sewing this blouse together.  I mixed up the front and back facings and didn't realize it until I already had the piping and buttons sewn on!  There's not much difference in those two pattern pieces, so I choose not to take it all apart and redo my work.  I honestly can't tell a difference in the fit, and my bet is that you never would have known it either!

Now, on to the pants.  I used my size 5 shorts pattern pieces as a guide in creating the new pattern pieces needed for the pants.  This included the shorts front, back, front facing, and back facing pieces.  I am not going into any great detail on how I created these, but I will say that I used a pair of pants that fit my daughter well as a go by for determining the length of the new O + S pants.

The trickiest part of converting the shorts to pants pattern is the adjustment of the front piece inside seam.  It is angled, but you can't simply extend that angle out to the length you need.  Instead, you'll have to just play with it and adjust the angle the best you can.  It's really no big deal.  Mine worked out just fine.

Where I had a little problem, however, is that I was working with limited fabric, something like just under 3/4 of a yard of denim fabric which was 60" wide.  In order to get the pants front and back and facing pieces all cut out of the denim, I had to make the facing pieces slightly narrower than the  pattern specified.

I did not take this into account when cutting out the waistband pieces, so my front waistband ended up being roughly 1.25" too short!  My solution was to add that little square piece of denim to the middle front of the waistband.  I think it kind of looks like I meant for it to be that way!  Don't you?

The most difficult part of the assembly of these pants was sewing all the way down and then back up the facing pieces.  I did not anticipate this when I decided to make pants instead of shorts.  If you decide to make a similar pair of pants, I would suggest sewing half way down each side of the facing piece from the top then sewing half way up each side of the facing piece from the bottom so that your seams meet somewhere in the middle.  It is very difficult to sew down that narrow leg tube shape and not get a nice smooth seam.  I went very, very slowly and constantly checked to make sure I wasn't getting any other fabric stuck under the presser foot.  Let's just say it was a tense few minutes of sewing!

And then I forgot to sew the tags in while I was sewing on the waistband.  I do this all the time!  Do you? Anyway, I improvised and sewed them onto this little strip of fabric and then sewed it into the pants.  It looks pretty sloppy from the inside, but the outside is nice and neat since I sewed directly over the seam. If you are interested in sizing and care labels, read my post here.

While this outfit is not girly looking at all, it is a great outfit to wear for playing and exploring the outdoors. Plus, Ella can wear these pants with pretty much any t-shirt or other blouse as long as the waistband is covered. She loves the outfit and says it is super comfy, so even though it has a few little mistakes, who cares! As long as she's happy, I'm happy!  And I'd say she looks pretty happy!