When my little boy broke his leg I needed to make a pair of trousers for him which were easy to get on and off, wide enough in the leg to accommodate his cast, and of course nice and warm. Tree Climbers to the rescue!
I found these soft, rather fine 100% wool pants really inexpensively at the charity shop, which were perfect.
Thought I'd mention - after cutting out my Tree Climbers, there was plenty of fabric left over. Enough for two matching Evergreen Bonnets!
There wasn't quite enough width in the leg for the full pattern piece, but Tree Climbers are a baggy style, so a little narrower was just fine.
By cutting the pattern pieces along the bottom of the original trousers, I managed to retain the original hem which was wide enough to insert leg elastic into.
If doing this, simply fold under the bottom of the paper pattern piece by an inch or so, to account for the amount you now don't need for the leg elastic casing.
Join the legs as per the Tree Climbers tutorial.
Make the casing. I like to insert a little tag or folded piece of ribbon here to indicate which is the back.
Insert the elastic into the waist, try on your child and adjust if necessary. Normally you would insert elastic into the casing at the bottom too. If keeping the existing hem, simply unpick a little gap in the hem - just enough to insert and thread the elastic through.
As these pants had to go over his cast - I omitted the leg elastic for a wide leg look. Of course I love to do a spot of embroidery, so opted for a bit of humour with an arrow pointing to the break ;)
These wee pants were invaluable for those weeks in a cast - and the leg elastic could easily be added into the hem when the cast came off.
Easy, handmade with love, and customised for my boy. What is not to love about Tree Climbers?!
Grab yourself an old pair of trousers and make some today!
