New Shorts

I made a pair of shorts for my little guy, this week. The fabric was way too cute, not to.

I used a free pattern from Oliver+S, called Sunny Day Shorts.

The fabric compliments the back pack I made him, before he was born. This is the back pack fabric.

This is the shorts. Summer foxes, on a camping trip.

I've made lots of shorts over the years, since my boys got two or three pairs, every summer until they refused to wear Mom made shorts. So I thought I would share a few tricks, which I find makes the project quicker and easier.

After I sew each seam, I cut the seam allowance in half, and overcast the edge. I also use the triple stitch to reinforce the crotch seam.

Nice clean finish, and the shorts will easily survive frequent washing. You can see the triple stitch on the right side of the picture.

In turning up the hem, I first baste a line of stitches where I want the first fold. Then I fold the fabric along the basting line, and zigzag close to the edge of the fabric. Then I measure and turn up the hem, and stitch close to the fold. The zigzag doesn't show on the outside, and the edge is nice and flat.

The pattern called for a rather complicated method of adding the waist band. I went for quick and tidy. I sewed the waist band into a circle leaving a one inch opening near the "top" of the band. I stitched the seam allowance open, and trimmed it. I folded the waist band in half, and sewed it to the top of the shorts (making sure the fabric would be right side up, when I turned it up), and overcast the edge.  Then I ironed the waist band up, pressing the seam allowance toward the shorts, and edge stitched the seam allowance to the shorts.

See, all nice and neat! All that is left is to feed the elastic through the hole on the inside of the waistband.

I leave the hole in the back open, in case he grows and I need to put in a longer piece of elastic. Because the seam allowance was stitched down, you can't even tell.

Ready for action!

I plan to make more, but right now, I am out of elastic, in the correct width.