Sew Can Do: Who's Got Ants In Their Pants? A Lined Pants Tutorial

I can honestly say my kids have ants in their pants and it's not even an exaggeration anymore. And these ants are the cute kind, (if you can consider ants cute that is). I saw this tiny ant print fabric and a voice in my head cried out "Ants In My Pants! You NEED to make that a reality!!!" So I did:

Would you believe I had a HUGE ant phobia back in high school and now I'm raving about using ant print fabric? Yeah, I know I'm a weirdo. In my defense the phobia was more due to a carpenter ant infestation in a kitchen one summer, so the teeny weeny ants weren't really part of the phobia. And all 3 of my kids love bugs - even my 3yr old daughter. She couldn't wait to see these pants. Maybe we're a total family of weirdos...but c'mon isn't this little guy more sweet than scary?

To make my Ants In My Pants I recycled an old pair of men's jeans and used a basic one-piece pants pattern for the design. The fancy (p)ants fabric is the Itsy Bitsy Ants print from Timeless Treasures. The pockets are also lined and the fold over design makes a few little ants peek out over the tops:

The cuffs fold up so some teeny ants peek out there too:

For the outer fabric I started with an old pair of men's jeans of my husband's that had shrunk a bit and cut the legs open along the inside leg seam.

I folded the cut lining leg piece in half and place the fold along the remaining outside leg seam of the jeans and then opened that piece up to cut the outer pant legs. This made sure those already-in-place side seam would be nice and straight when finished.

I cut out 2 pockets & matching linings with a tall, angled top. Then I sewed them right sides together and left a small gap to turn them right side out. A quick press to flatten, then folded the top portions outward and stitched them down. Then I placed them on the back portions of the jeans and sewed them into place:

I sewed up the inner leg seams and crotch seams for the lining and outer pants so I had to separate pairs of pants. Next I followed the same steps I used for making my insulated snow pants a while back. All the details for sewing the layers together, turning and forming the waistband can be found HERE. For the bottom cuffs I just folded the raw edges inward, pinned together and topstitched near the edge.

Then we turn the cuffs up and are ready for getting a little antsy. For daring days we can wear 'em full ants side out. I like to think we're doing our part for the environment by recycling some old clothing and showing a little bug love at the same time: