baby pants fraying - help!

I'm a new sewer and am having to figure everything out as I go. I've done ok but when I pulled my son's pants (my first clothes project) from the wash, I was mortified to see that it had frayed beyond the seems. Here's what I did:

I used an Oliver + S patter to make pj pants. I shortened them and used linen with cotton cuffs to make little summer pants. They're super cute and I'm hoping to make them something he can wear over and over. He's 10 months, so they have to be sturdy.

What can I do to fix this now and prevent this in the future? I know people use fray check, but that seems like it would wear off after several washings. Is there a technique I'm missing?

Thanks!

Oh no, how sad!

I haven't used any of their patterns but I assume they direct you to finish the seams in some way. Which method did you use? Was it the side seams that frayed?

If there is room you could sew the seams again and use a sturdier method of finishing the seams. Or if there's not enough width you could possible use the contrast material to make a sort of tuxedo stripe down the outside seam which would allow you to add width and make it a decorative element at the same time. You'd have to recut the cuffs but hopefully you'd be able to save them without too much extra work.

You need to either srege or zigzag raw edges to keep it from fraying.

Ok, thanks for the info.  I wasn't sure if the linen would need something beyond a zig zag. Thanks again!

If you zig-zag stitched the edges and you're still getting fraying, my guess is that your stitches may have been either too large or too loose for the linen.  If you can still salvage the pants, try re-sewing the seam with a smaller stitch and slightly more tension.  That could be the difference you need.  Good luck!

I third the zig zag. For clothing for wee ones that are relatively active I used the most durable and comfortable fabrics I could find and tended to double the seams. My daughter could bust the knees out of anything!

A short cut you can do for now is use pinking shears to cut a zig zag edge and that should stop the fraying. (:

Linen will definitely have a tendency to fray more than a lot of other fabrics (since it is more loosely woven).  Here are a few things that will help prevent the fraying from spreading too far:

-Leave yourself a fairly large seam allowance.  At least 5/8", in my opinion.  The more fabric in the seam, the more it would have to fray to get through.

-Zig-zag the edges with a fairly small stitch length.  If the zigzag is too large, the fabric will still fray in between the v's.

-Double stitch all of your seams (and for kids clothes, I actually triple stitch, since they will get so much wear and tear!).  Use a pretty small stitch length ... this will give the fabric very little room to be able to unravel since two layers of tight stitching will be holding everything in place.

Good luck!

Jennifer

In future if you don't have a serger, you can also use French seams.  There's a nice tutorial here:
http://www.sewneau.com/how.to/french.seam.html

thank you for asking this! i have patterns cut and was ready to start on pants and bloomers from "simple sewing for baby", a wonderful book i bought. this helps bunches!!!

I am serging the seams on my kids' pants and they are fraying apart! Am I doing something wrong.  They are flannel "just around the house pants" I thought using the serger would keep the edges from fraying. I'm sure I must be missing a step.