Kneepads - three Ways!

We're wrapping up Celebrate the BOY this week, but I have just 1 more how-to post I wanted to share. Today I thought I'd talk a scrap nearly adding kneepads to pants. You can add together kneepads while you're making pants OR after they accept been worn through at the knees. All three of these kneepads have been tested by Elliot, and each ane has proven to hold upward over fourth dimension. Kids can be rough on their wearing apparel, and kneepads are a great fashion to ensure that your hard-earned sewing efforts don't go to waste material!

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The first kneepad goes beyond the pant leg and is fabricated of a basic rectangle.

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In this tutorial I'm showing you how to add together the kneepad to a four-piece pant (see this postal service for the difference between a iv-piece and two-slice pant), but you can also use information technology for a two-slice pant pattern, as long as yous finish one of the sides before attaching it to the pant leg. I'll discuss that beneath.

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(1) Cut two rectangles of fabric, at least one inch wider than the width of the pant leg. The height should be twice the height that you want your kneepad PLUS i" for seam allowance (and so if you want a 5" kneepad, cut them (5x2)+i=11" tall). Add together fusible interfacing if your fabric is not a bottom-weight like twill, canvas, or corduroy. In the picture, the rectangles are folded in one-half.
(2) Fold each rectangle in one-half like a hot domestic dog with correct sides together so that the bottom and height edges are even. Pin and sew the 2 edges together with a 1/2" seam.
(3) Turn the kneepad right-side out and press information technology apartment. Use some other pair of pants to aid you find where your child's knee will striking on the pant, making sure to fold over the waistband allowance on the pants-in-progress for more than accurate placement.
(4) Marking your stitch lines across the kneepad using chalk and a ruler, roughly 1" apart. Pin each kneepad in place to each front end pant piece.
(5) Stitch along the lines to secure the kneepad to the pant leg.
(6) Trim the edges of the kneepads even with the edges of the pant pieces.
(seven) Finish sewing the pant together. The exterior edges of the kneepads will get sewn into the outseams (shown) and the inseams (not shown) of the pant.If you are using a two-slice pant pattern, you have ii options: you tin can either sew together i of the side edges together in step 2 before turning it correct-side out so it'due south finished (the other side edge gets finished when sewing the inseam), or you can tuck the outside edge of the kneepad under a tuxedo stripe equally shown here:

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kneepad pants up north

kneepad pants up due north

Hither'due south some other shot of him last autumn wearing the linen pants fabricated in the tutorial. They're actually soft considering they're fabricated out of Essex Linen, a soft only sturdy fabric that'due south become really popular lately, so this pair has been 1 of his favorites. Can you believe how long his pilus was in this picture?

Hither'south a how-to for a more than "classic"-shape kneepad:

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(1) Cutting ii front and two back pieces (I like to use a dissimilarity colour that will peek out a picayune behind the kneepad).
(2) If your fabric is not very heavy, you may want to add fusible interfacing to strengthen it.
(3) Pin each kneepad front to each dorsum, correct sides facing, and sew all the way around, leaving an opening for turning. Then turn it right-side out through the opening, and press it flat.
(iv) Pin and sew together to pant leg (preferably before yous sew the pant inseam, ahem. It tin can be a fleck difficult to sew information technology onto the pant leg after information technology'southward already been sewn together).

You can come across this kneepad in action on Elliot's City Pant! If you like this look, you should likewise check out Dana's Child Pants with Kneepads for another great style to make kneepads (from t-shirt scraps).

The tertiary blazon of kneepad is a patch kneepad. I've used Elliot'due south favorite Melody Miller radio print on ii different pairs of jeans to patch holes at the knees. The print comes on a Kokka linen canvas, which is squeamish and heavy, but you could use a flake from another pair of pants or any canvas fabric, as long equally it'south fairly heavy-duty.

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(1) The pair of jeans I started with had holes worn through the knees.
(ii) Use an atomic number 26 to fuse a scrap of canvas to double-sided fusible web (like HeatnBond), and cut to size.
(iii) Skin the backing off.
(4) Identify kneepads in desired location.
(5) Printing with an iron to fuse them to the jeans.
(6) If your machine arm will fit inside the leg of the pant with room to maneuver, you tin zig-zag stitch effectually the edges of the kneepad to hold it in place. It might be easier, though, to whipstitch over the edges past mitt, using a heavier thread like Coats & Clark buttonhole thread or topstitch thread.
(7) My stitches didn't terminate up looking too hot...you might want to try a thread that matches better (that didn't stop Mr E from wearing them until the jeans got too small, though)!
(eight) Repeat for the other leg.

So, there you go: three dissimilar means to make kneepads...three dissimilar ways to make pants last longer!

Celebrate the BOY 2013

Celebrate the BOY 2013