Obnoxious Shorts™

The last days of school were approaching, with Field Day being a big event for the kiddo, and he'd suddenly decided he was A-OK with the idea of wearing shorts.

He's also quite keen on the idea of loud prints.

Well.



I pulled out some cloth that he'd actually picked out at JoAnn JOANN when he was almost five, before I experienced the heartbreak of sewing something that would be grown out of so fast.  It's the print on top here

(the skunk cloth is still in the stash)

And old friend KwikSew 2544 does indeed have a shorts view

although, of course, I didn't exactly follow it.  He wanted the shorts to be closer to mid-knee, I didn't think the cargo pockets would be a good idea with such a loud print (and there wasn't enough of it anyway), and, once again, view A's faux fly front was used.

So we end up with this

I admit, I did not even think about pattern placement, partly because I had relatively little of this cloth and partly because, pfft, it's so loud.  I am a bit annoyed by how close the repeat is across the fly--the stop signs really grab my attention--but, when it's worn, there are long t-shirts and constant motion

so it's not at all obvious.

The busy-ness of the print means that my topstitching looks just fine, whether it really is or not.

(of course it's most not-fine in the small parts of not-busy.)

 The back is much better in terms of not having repeats on either side of the seam be close enough to notice.

The waistband elastic is in the back only, with  the casing made by folding over the top.  It calls for only a single line of stitching, but I went ahead with a second line, using the inside of the presser foot for spacing (that's how I do the first line of seam topstitching, too--something I started doing with doll clothes that adapted surprisingly well to human-size stuff.)

He did stand still for a picture

Parents are invited to Field Day, and at one point I noticed some of his fiends looking at his shorts.    I was a bit worried that they might think the shorts were too weird (of course I have no problem with "weird," and I'm trying to raise the kiddo with the same attitude, but the opinions of peers can often count far more than the opinions of parents), and I have no idea if there's stigma around the whole idea of home-made clothes.  He eventually pointed at me and one of the kids looked over and said, "You make good clothes!"

So there will definitely be more loud shorts (there already are, but I'm kinda behind on posting...and there will be even more, eventually.)