It's Summertime!

 

It has started to get quite toasty here in Osaka. I think they announced that rainy season is upon us, but that might have just been for the Tokyo area. Regardless, it's been raining a lot and super humid. Today was a nice, sunny day to relieve us from the previous four days of drizzle. With the weather warming up, I figured it was a nice time to make some shorts for K.

 

I saw a pattern ages ago from one of my Japanese sewing magazines and liked the style, so I used that pattern. Sorry, no link! That being said, you could probably quite easily draft your own from an existing pair and then add the pockets and change up the fabrics. I started by cutting out all of the pieces.

 

Since both of these fabrics were a pretty rough weave, I zig zagged all edges. I really don't want all of the seams to come apart after one wash.

Then I prepped the pockets. For the front pockets this entailed single bias tape along the top edge and then ironing the outside edge of the pocket under. I had never done a rounded pocket before - rounded edges scare me - but it turns out it is quite simple to do. I sewed a basting stitch about halfway up the pocket, around the curve and then halfway across the bottom. Then I cut out a piece of thin cardboard to mimick the shape of the curve. After that, with the cardboard on top of the back of the pocket, I just pulled one of the strings and the pocket curved up perfectly. Finally just iron this as well as the straight edges down and done! Ready for sewing.

Once the pockets were ready, they were sewed on to each leg piece. This always makes me nervous - will they line up once sewed together?

Luckily they did! I sewed the shorts together, hemmed the bottoms and added the waistband.

The final step was to add elastic and then try them on the kid. They fit pretty well. I made size 100cm, so the waist is a bit bulky. I should have probably made the 90cm for the width and adjusted the length to be the 100cm size. Ah well. Hopefully they will still fit next summer too!

K seemed to quite like them. He said they were "cool and windy." I think "windy" means the breeze goes through them?? Who knows. He kept them on all day, though, so I vote they're a success!