Pattern Drafting – Child Shorts

You’ll need a ruler, card stock, shorts to copy, scissors (paper and fabric), a pencil, sewing machine, pins, elastic (I used 1/4″ cut to Miss Chief’s waist + 1″) and fabric.

Fold the shorts in half to the side seam faces up.

Tuck one leg inside the other. The crotch seam is shown here at the right.

Pull the crotch seam to the side and fold the shorts in half once more.

Lay the shorts on your card stock and mark their edges.

Roughly sketch the outside of the shorts.

Using a ruler, connect the edge points you made in step 5.

Here the shorts and sketch are shown side-by-side to give you an idea of what you’ve got.

Here’s the pattern on Miss Chief’s chosen fabric.

I’m a little lazy. I only wanted to do a few seams, so I’m using the pattern on the fold. Trace around the pattern. Alternatively, you can cut four of these pieces and seam them together where I used the fold.

Using your ruler, add a seam allowance outside your pattern marks. 5/8″ is typical here in the US.

Cut your fabric on the seam allowance lines.

Sew front to back along the sides. You can use your pencil lines as a guide. (I used a french seam, so there aren’t any rough edges left over.)

Press your seam open and sew the crotch seam.

Hem the bottom. I used a simple rolled hem done by eyeballing the fabric.

Be certain to keep those seams open!

Fold over the top and stitch down to make a casing for the elastic. Remember to leave a small bit unstitched for inserting the elastic.

Insert the elastic using a safety pin. Pin the two ends together and have your little one try on the shorts to check. Once you’ve got a good length, stitch the elastic together. Also, you’ll want to sew it down along the seams so it doesn’t roll around and become uncomfortable.

Notes: The original shorts were stretchy, so it is necessary to use stretchy fabric when you make your own. This allows your shorts to be a little more forgiving. I used a cotton/lycra blend.

Tagged as: children, patterns, sewing