little plaid shorts

Fate smiled upon us today: sun on the 4th of July (it's been pouring rain for the past two days) and I finished these little heartbreaker pants this morning.  Obviously they're shorts not pants.  

I struggled with the decision for awhile and finally decided that I would make them the next size up (size 4/5) and hope next summer is warmer than this one.  In the meantime I think they fit fine.  That's how the kids wear their shorts these days anyway, right?  Extra long.

They seem to work just fine for diggin' in the sand.

Playing on the playground...

And eating dinner.

As you can see we take advantage of sunny days around here.  You never know which will be the last one before the rain comes back.

I did a couple of things differently for this pair.  First I made bias tape to match the lining fabric.  That's just for fun.  It makes me happy to see such well coordinated insides.

Pretty guts huh?  Almost too pretty for boy's shorts.

More importantly, instead of machine stitching down the waistband I slip-stitched it by hand.  So instead of looking like this...

Or this...

That's right I meandered off of course not once, but twice.  Almost too painful to look at isn't it?

It looks like this (front)

And this (back).

See how much neater the stitching is?  Oh wait, no you don't!  Haha!  

I have not been able to get the waistband sewn on neatly the way the book describes.

The number of layers is changing and you have the waistband to line up with on the outside and the turned under edge to sew through on the inside.  I finally decided it's easier to just hand stitch it in.  It doesn't really take that long.

Is it worth it? I guess that depends on how crazy you are.  I know that when he's wearing the khakis pictured above no one ever notices the wandering stitching line but I know it's there.  Apparently that's enough for me.

I also tried to match the plaids on the fronts and backs. 

Obviously I failed to do so on the sides though =(  I just forgot when I was laying out the pieces.  And what was I laying the pieces out on?  A large men's button up shirt.  I actually had to make the legs a wee bit narrower to fit all the pieces and line up the plaid.  The legs on this pattern are plenty roomy, though, and it was just a little bit.  I actually think that might be just as well since they're shorts.

Oh, and no cuffs: the shorts are rolled up a bit in these pics, though.  They're really long on him right now.  I'm hoping they get their wear this year and next, then maybe two summers for the next one!

So there you go.  Total cost I'd put at about $5 for buttons, elastic, and everything.  They're exactly what I wanted.

Another fortunate coincidence: this month's Sewing for Boys Sewalong pattern?  Of course =) Challenge accepted and completed.  I actually want to make another pair this month, though, so we'll see how things go.