Rainbow Dash costume-the pants

Hey there My Little Pony fans! I decided to split up the costume tutorial into two parts: today I’ll show you how I made the pants, and tomorrow, the hoodie. There were just too many pictures for one post…you may say that about this one too, but I like to show lots of detail with steps-so sue me! (no, please don’t… ๐Ÿ˜‰

See below for the tutorial!

You’ll need:
fleece (I used about 1.5 yards for a 3T size, but I got extra just to be safe. Now I have a bunch of blue fleece. lol)
matching thread
yarn in rainbow colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
scraps of red, blue, white, and yellow fabric for cutie mark
1″ elastic for waist
heat n bond or applique medium


ย First I made an easy pants pattern by folding a pair of Sadie’s pants in half and tracing them, adding seam allowance, and extra fabric on top to fold over for the casing, and on the bottom for hemming. You can always trim down or hem up more fabric!

Then I opened the pants pieces like so and laid one on top of the other. Next I sewed one curved edge together.ย 

You can see it better here. I used my serger for some seams, but just for ease…fleece doesn’t fray so a regular sewing machine will work fine.

Next I cut LOTS of pieces of yarn. I cut them a bit longer so I could trim them up later, and for seam allowance on the top. Cut pieces until you’re happy with the tail fullness.

Then I sewed each color together in batches like so, going back and forth a few times. They’re not perfectly laid out straight, some yarn pieces are on top of others-you can kind of sew willy nilly here and it will look great!

Then do that with the rest of your colors.

Arrange your tail colors where you’d like them (make sure to leave space for the waistband to fold over. And yes, Rainbow Dash’s tail starts with purple on top! Sadie made sure to remind me. Make sure your stitches are past the seam allowance so you won’t see them.

Next, baste them to the edge of the pants like so. I didn’t pin since that would probably be an exercise in futility with all those strands of yarn, but just inserted the next color while I went, and they did overlap a little bit.

Trim the extra off..

Then sew this side of the pants together along the curved edge like so.

Then making sure your tail is out of the way, unfold your pants and then sew around the inside leg.

Or, if you’re smart, do the cutie mark now before you sew them together. Although it wasn’t too hard to get in there to sew it on, but in a smaller size it would be!

First I traced a jpg from online of her cutie mark, after I sized it correctly…then I traced each lightening color seperately like so.

Next trace them onto your heat n bond on the paper side. Make sure to trace it backwards from how you want it to look when it’s sewed on, since heat n bond is applied to the back of fabric.

Next I ironed my heat n bond to the backs of the different colored fabrics like so. The white is some stuff canvas like material, which I really liked using for this! It made it feel more like a patch. You’ll also need a piece of that to adhere this all to, since ironing and fleece don’t mix.

So next I cut and peeled off the paper, then ironed them to my white canvas like so.

Then added my white cloud (I left myself a lot of space, eh? lol.) I also now traced the cloud swirl with a fading fabric pen.

Next I sewed around the outside of the cloud and swirl with a zig zag stitch. I set my stitches to be very close together so it was more like a satin stitch, but I still went around it twice to get it to look this way. Next trim around the cloud stitches (carefully!), and the lightening bolts.

Then I placed it on the booty area and pinned into place.
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Next I sewed around the whole thing with a zig zag stitch. I used matching blue thread so that it would mostly blend in with the fleece.


Lastly I sewed a casing around the top of the pants, left a few inches open, and inserted my elastic with a safety pin (cut to fit Sadie’s waist) , then sewed the ends together, and sewed the hole closed. Hem the bottom of the pants to fit, and you’re done!

Here’s the My Little Pony Hoodie tutorial !


Comments

  1. Very clever and well made.

  2. Very clever and well made.

  3. Was your daughter just in rainbow heaven?

    Darling!

  4. Was your daughter just in rainbow heaven?

    Darling!

  5. Was your daughter just in rainbow heaven?

    Darling!

  6. great work!
    xx the cookies
    share the feeling
    visit <3
    samecookiesdifferent.blogspot.com

  7. I didn’t get a chance to comment on the original post. Sadie looks so cute on this! these are the things she will remember for ever and tell her kids about. And this reminds me why I like to learn to sew, so when I have kids, they look so happy in their mommy made costume like your daughter looks!

  8. Jess, I’ve been reading your blog for several months now and have never commented yet.
    Your little girls are sooo adorable!
    Seriously, look at that sweet little pony-girl!
    And you are a wonderful, creative and so very generous person, sharing all the how-to and writing all these tutorials for free.
    Thank you so much for all that!

    Sending you a big hug from across the ocean, Kat

  9. So cute!! How did the yarn wash? And the cutie mark?

    • I haven’t ever washed them since they are in dress up and don’t get a ton of use, but I would suggest hand washing. ๐Ÿ™‚

  10. I don’t own a sewing machine and they are too pricey for me to ever get one. Do you think fabric glue or hot glue gun would work to keep everything together?

  11. Jess,
    Thank you for this tutorial. My daughter is nine and loves MLP. She has been wanting a rainbow dash outfit for a super long time. I cant wait to try out your tutorial. She is going to be over the moon.

  12. I was wondering how much fleece u used total for pants and the hoodie?

  13. I can see that you made this tutorial a while ago and am so grateful that you did! My 5 year old son is a Brony and he wanted to be Rainbow Dash for halloween this year but all we could find were dresses. I am no expert to sowing in fact this is my 1st big sewing project but with your helpful tutorial, (and youtube for some basics with my machine) I’m able to do this! Thank you so much for sharing!! ๐Ÿ™‚

Trackbacks

  1. […] over at CINO shared great instruction on how to do this when she made her Rainbow Dash tutorial last […]