Funky Matilda Jane Knock Off Ruffle Pants

A girl that goes to school with my daughter had on some adorable clothes one day so I asked her mom where she got them. She told me it was ordered from a Matilda Jane trunk show.  I Googled it when I got home and found some impressive clothes with even more impressive price tags!  I fell in love with these pants.  Aren't they the cutest pants EVER???

My mother-in-law had been teaching me how to sew recently, so I sent her an email to see if she thought we could make these.  Her answer was, "Absolutely!"   The fabric on the Matilda Jane pants appear to be a knit cotton, but I wanted something fun and colorful, so I picked out some adorable seersucker fabric from the Tutti Fruitti collection at Hancock Fabrics.  I made a pair for each of my daughters, and I'm making another one for my cousin's daughter. 

Basically, I just followed a pants pattern and cut off about 4 1/2 inches from the bottom of the pattern to make room for the ruffle. 

In order to create a poofy ruffle, rather than one that just laid flat, I cut a rectangular piece of coordinating material that was 10 inches by 20 inches, then folded the material lengthwise to be 5 inches by 20 inches.

I sewed the two ends together, then I sewed it together lengthwise so the fabric would not move while I was hand ruffling.

I pinned the seam of the ruffle to the inner seam of the pant leg, then pinned the folded edge to the outer edge of the pant leg, right side to right side.  I had to pull the ruffle through the pant leg so that I could manage the fabric of the ruffle better.

I gathered and pinned each ruffle.

After hand ruffling, I sewed the pant leg to the ruffle.

  Repeat for the other leg and VOILA!!

Here are my princesses wearing their new ruffle pants with matching tops!  What do you think??

I wonder if I could pull off this look...  ;)