Shorts and more shorts

So school has started and my plan to make my kids totally cute individual Oliver + S bucket hats has yet to come to fruition. 

Instead I have investing my sewing time in making up shorts, LOTS of shorts. 

My water-loving, totally-tactile-smears food/yogurt/mud/paint-all-over-everything daughter goes through an inordinate amount of clothing each day. 

DD also pretty much hates skirts and dresses (I'm hoping she'll grow out of this).

 The few odd occasions I've been able to "coax" her (think of trying to dress a really peeved off cat) into anything dress-like she has insisted on wearing "pants" (her word for shorts) underneath. 

The shorts she currently had were getting a bit worn out looking and frankly I find some of the girls toddler shorts for sale these day ridiculously short/high cut in the leg! Honestly I think some of the big chain store clothing designers have been looking to Daisy Duke for inspiration in the kids clothes department, because that's the only reason I can come up with for the brief-ness. 

The fact that the smaller they make each pattern piece for a garment the more fabric- and therefore money- they save also has nothing to do with either right? (cynical much?).

Righty then back to MY shorts, the ones I made. Well for a very easy shorts design (elasticated waist, simple or no pockets) this project ended up being a bit more convoluted than originally planned.

Being super lazy time poor I opted to use this thrifted pattern from my stash that was miraculously already cut to the size I needed:

 

 The copyright for this pattern is 1998, which makes it at least 14 years old. Still I was surprised at how baggy the shorts turned out to be:

Maybe this is just a side effect of fashion being so "skinny legged" in shorts and jeans these past few years, I've started to see a narrower cut as "normal". 

Still they DO give my daughter lots of room to move and climb (as she is prone to) about so I'm thinking maybe baggy is not such a bad thing. 

Also she has had a growth spurt in the week or so since the photos were taken, so that room has come in quite handy- nothing worse than making something only to have the kids grow out of it overnight ;)

One thing I LOVE about sewing for kids is getting to use fun prints and craft fabrics, like this Lisette icecream print: 

Honestly if I could get away with it I would TOTALLY be wearing this fabric. 
As it is it appears I will just have to live voraciously through my toddler daughter's wardrobe ;)

There are a few more versions of these shorts that I've made and have yet to photograph. 
Nearly 4 year olds make quite rambuncious clothing models and getting a usable shot has been harder than I thought.
May be time to resort to bribery..or at least lollies.

Til next time....

Happy Sewing ! 

Kate :)