The final stash of stupid cloth training pants (now even stupider, thanks to Noob!)

I finally finished the last two a few days ago. Here's all of them (minus one, the white one with the stars on the tabs, shown in this post -- it was still at school):

Closer up... the one on the left here is one of the two new ones, and the one on the right I made a few weeks ago. Same PUL -- you can see how it's faded with washing in the one on the right. But it doesn't look too bad when it's not side-by-side with a brand-new one :) These both have microchamois tabs and microfleece inners.

The one on the right here is another new one. "Later Gator" PUL print body, ribbed knit tabs (from Joann's), microfleece inner:

The one on the right here is the second one I sewed, but I never posted a picture of it. It's the one with crushed panne tabs/inner, before I decided crushed panne was too much of a PITA to work with :)

I've posted all of these before, but just to do close-ups...

So of course, now that I'm done sewing these, Noob has stayed completely dry at school for much of this week! LOL! That is why I didn't buy these suckers at retail prices! I'll keep some around for naps/nighttime, for sure, and I'm just trying to decide if I should save the rest for Q (since it's a pretty boyish stash, and Q may or may not be a boy) or sell them off...

Cloth training pants

Let me preface this post by stating that I think that training pants (cloth or disposable pull-ups) are the stupidest thing ever. LOL.

The idea behind them is that they provide a transition from diapers to underwear, allowing kids to use the potty but preventing messes when they don't. Which sounds great in theory. Problem is, at least with my kids, avoiding a mess is the reason that they use the potty. If they're in training pants, there's no motivation to use the potty. And so training pants are really no better than diapers.

For that reason, Littles went straight from diapers to underwear. And for that reason, when I work on potty training with Noob right now, he's bottomless.

Another thing that's stupid about cloth training pants in particular is that they are designed to be used for a limited period of time, when the child is transitioning from diapers to underwear. Presumably, the child should either "get" the concept of using the potty and transition to underwear, or not "get" it and go back to diapers. Either way, that eliminates the need for training pants. I can see how it might make sense to use a pack or two of disposable pullups during that transition period. But spending hundreds of dollars on a full stash of cloth training pants? That makes no sense to me.

So, why on earth am I sewing a full stash of cloth training pants? Well, Noob is starting at preschool this week, and his preschool requires pullups -- no diapers. So, I have to buy super-expensive disposable pullups, or spend hundreds of dollars on cloth training pants... or sew my own. Clearly, the last option won out :)

(If you're wondering what I did for Littles when she started at this preschool? Since I didn't know how to sew at the time, I found some cheap side-snapping diapers, and pre-snapped them so that they could be pulled on. After a few months, her teachers complained that she wasn't able to pull them up/down easily enough. Which was true. Luckily, she was on the verge of potty training anyway, so we switched her into underwear at that point and that was that. But given that Noob will have the same lead teacher, I knew that the side-snapping diapers wouldn't be an option this time around.)

Without further ado/ranting, here is my collection of stupid cloth training pants :) All are done using the Trimsies Trainer pattern, overnight style, size small, with a pocket.

Outer: PUL (purchased directly from another sewing mom)
Tabs: Cotton rib knit (Joann's)
Inner: Microfleece (wazoodle.com)

I did just a slit pocket on this one. Very easy -- basically, I cut a hole in the inner fabric using my rotary cutter, before sewing the outer and inner together. But I don't like the way it looks. It kinda "flips up," exposing the Lastin elastic at the back. Still, it's very serviceable.

Noob wasn't really cooperating for action shots, but here are a few. For these, I was using a two-layer Zorb II soaker that I made a while back. It fit OK, but these trainers are really trim through the crotch/front panel, so I knew they'd look better if I sewed up some soakers from the pattern itself. Which I've done now... I'll get to those in a little bit. Anyway, you'll see a little bit of poofiness in the front because the soaker that's in there isn't the best fit.

I wasn't quite sure that the side tabs were stretchy enough to be easy to pull up/down, and I thought it might be the microfleece inner limiting the stretch. So for the second pair I made, I used crushed panne velour for both the inner and the tabs, since it's super thin and stretchy. No pictures of this one, unfortunately :(

I found that the final product was just about as stretchy as my first version. And crushed panne is a maaaaaaaaajor pain in the butt to work with, because it's so thin and stretchy and slippery. It took me a lot longer to make, and since I have a lot of these to sew up in a short period of time, I decided to go back to microfleece inners.

Here are the next three that I made:

Inserts: These are made from the soaker pattern included with the trainer pattern. They fit great! They are three layers of heavy bamboo fleece (purchased from a coop). I originally thought I'd double them up, but I'm finding that just one is plenty absorbent! I'm loving this heavy bamboo fleece!

Top trainer outer: PUL (purchased from another sewing mom)
Tabs: Jersey cotton (from an old sheet set we have around the house, same one I used for the fitted diaper in this post)
Inner: Microfleece (wazoodle.com)

Middle trainer outer: PUL (fabric.com)
Tabs: Cotton interlock (naturesfabrics.com)
Inner: Microfleece (wazoodle.com)

Bottom trainer outer: PUL (purchased from another sewing mom)
Tabs and inner: Microchamois (purchased from a coop)

These all turned out really really well! We've been on vacation in China for the last ~2.5 weeks (which is why I haven't been sewing...) and I've used them all quite a bit and they've been working great. I especially love the bottom one with the microchamois tabs/inner -- microchamois is a type of microfleece that is slightly thinner and stretchier, and it really makes for a nice fit.

Oh! One thing I did on some of these trainers was sew a small patch of t-shirt fabric into the crotch. This is a feel-wet fabric (microfleece/microchamois are stay-dry), so hopefully that will help Noob with potty training. Here's what it looks like. Not real pretty on this trainer (it's obviously less visible on the trainers with white inners), but you can't see it once the trainer is on.

No action shots because I've been lazy, but I'm really happy with this pattern and these trainers. I have six now, which should be enough for one day at preschool... I'll be doing a lot of laundry at night until I can sew up a few more to add to the stash!

Vidia slippers

Littles somehow managed to lose one (only one!) of the Silvermist slippers I made for her a few months ago. I know it's somewhere in the house. But it's freezing here right now and she's been off school for the last three days due to snow/ice and I'm tired of seeing her poor bare feet around the house. So I decided to sew her a new pair.

This time, I asked Littles what color she wanted, and she chose purple. In the Disney Fairies world, purple is Vidia's color:

Vidia isn't one of the nicer fairies, but Littles loves her because she loves purple. I bought purple crushed panne months ago to make a Vidia costume for Littles (to go with her Tinker Bell and Silvermist costumes), but I haven't gotten around to it. Since she requested purple slippers, I figured I'd make them to match the Vidia costume that I will sew eventually :)

I used the same technique as the Silvermist slippers: Sew Darling Mini Mocs pattern, crushed panne for the outer, fleece for the inner, and anti-slip fabric for the sole.

Hopefully we can keep track of these ones :)

Silvermist slippers

After receiving her Silvermist costume for Christmas, Littles wore it for three days straight. On Day 2, she developed a nasty cold, and I felt so bad for her walking around the chilly house in bare arms/legs/feet (because, of course, she refused to wear anything but the costume) that I decided to at least do something about the feet.

So I pulled out the Sew Darling Mini Mocs pattern. I've sewed this pattern up a few times before and I love it! If you're familiar with Robeez soft soled shoes, Mini Mocs come out looking very similar. They are super easy to sew and the pattern is free!

The pattern includes sizes 0-6 months all the way through 4 years. For Littles, I used the 4 years pattern, but since she has her daddy's wide feet, I cut it a little bit wider. For fabric. I used scraps of crushed panne from her Silvermist costume top for the outside toe and outside heel pieces. I used anti slip sole fabric (found on the notions wall at Joann's) for the outside sole. And for all of the inside pieces, I used light blue fleece, to make the slippers soft and warm.

I think they came out really nicely!

A good shot of the anti slip sole fabric:

I managed to get her to wear a long sleeve shirt as well as the slippers, but she still refused to put anything on her legs...Oh well.

Silvermist fairy costume

If you don't have a preschool-age girl in your life, you are probably unfamiliar with Silvermist. But everyone probably knows her good friend Tinker Bell, of Peter Pan fame. The marketing wizards at Disney apparently figured out that they could make Tinker Bell a star in her own right, and sell more stuff. So there are now movies that feature Tinker Bell. She has an entourage of fairy friends, each possessing a different talent. Silvermist is a "water fairy."

Like many other preschool-age girls, Littles adores Tinker Bell. In fact, when we went to the pumpkin patch with her preschool class back in October, out of maybe 10 girls in our group, three of them planned to be Tinker Bell for Halloween. Littles was one of them, and she insisted that I sew her costume.

I used Butterick 4632 as the pattern. It's not as pretty as the official licensed Disney fairy pattern (Simplicity 2559 for sizes 1/2 to 4, or Simplicity 2872 for sizes 3-8), but it is very easy to sew. I didn't make the included wings; instead, I picked up green wings at Dollar Tree. Here is the finished costume:

Littles loves her Tinker Bell costume, but she also requested a Silvermist costume and a Vidia costume. (Vidia is actually a bit of a villain in the Tinker Bell movies, but Littles likes her because she wears purple, which is Littles' favorite color.) So I decided to sew them for her as a Christmas present. Noob's gift ended up taking so long that I could only do one, and I chose to do Silvermist. Thankfully, this one came together much faster. It took less than 2 hours of sewing time.

I made the original Tinker Bell costume out of some relatively expensive "special occasion" fabric (for the top) and stretch satin (for the skirt) from Joann's. I figured out afterwards that I could use crushed panne instead, which I picked up on sale for $2.99/yard at Hancock Fabrics. Score! And it worked really well!

Here is Littles wading through her other presents in her new Silvermist costume on Christmas morning:

I like how it turned out, for the most part. I messed up the elastic casing on the skirt, but the top covers it anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Also, the neck hole is too big for Littles, so the costume tends to slide off one of her shoulders. I had this problem with the original Tinker Bell costume and I thought it was because I had sewed the neckline incorrectly... but I did it right this time and it's still a problem. I think the size small (which is what I made) might just be a little big for her. Oh well, a safety pin in the back of the top holds it on her shoulders for now, and it gives her room to grow.

Littles could care less about the big neck hole, and has now worn this costume for three days straight :) But she has asked for blue wings. Darn, Dollar Tree only sells fairy wings around Halloween. I might have to learn how to make them myself...