Play Camp means we need shorts! | Week 25

Play Camp means we need shorts! | Week 25 | #52wonderfilledweeks

June 24, 2018

Summer has arrived for the Laymaneers, our vacations are over, our over night visits from friends and family are done for the season and P starts Summer Play Camp here in Chicago tomorrow! We planted our flowers last weekend and it's literally rained...(no dumped!!!) everyday for the past week or so until a day ago. We took advantage of the beautiful weather here yesterday and got the yard all cleaned up and had the first fire pit fire of the season.

Today we were back in the high 80's though and after I learned at orientation that Play Camp takes place mostly outside I knew I needed to stock P's drawers with some lighter weight shorts. All her current shorts are legging style, knit, close to the body and hot. She takes after her father something fierce when it comes to over heating and can be flushed in minutes in warm weather. I'm hopeful that having these lightweight woven shorts will help keep her cool while still allowing her to run and play as hard as she likes.

I bought this remnant at JoAnn's when P was a baby!

I used the Patterns for Pirates, Little Loungers pattern (the kid version of their Linen Loungers for women). I actually bought the bundle because I thought if I liked the pattern I'd make some for myself. I'm always looking for lightweight clothing for my outdoor concerts especially. I had everything else on hand, oodles of cotton woven to choose from and plenty of elastic!

It's a pretty straightforward pattern and everything worked perfectly EXCEPT the waistband...and I still can't wrap my head around why, but the elastic casing was just a touch too small on the first pair I made (I opted for the seamless casing if you're wondering). Because the casing is too small the elastic wants to roll so I top stitched it in place to keep it from doing that. I don't like how it looks but the shorts are functional so we will go with it.

The second pair I did, I did not roll the top half of the casing under for the seamless look and instead serged the edge and skipped right to folding the band in half. This worked but it was still almost too tight for the elastic.

I just lined up the serged areas for the my second try, which was better but still not perfect.

I think next time I am going to try the same method P4P uses in their Walk the Plank PJ pant bottoms (btw this is a free pattern!! and it comes in adults too!), where you sew the elastic to the wrong side of the waistband and then fold over and stitch, basically sewing the casing as you're top stitching.

I had dreams of knocking out 5 or 6 pairs of shorts but I was finishing up the graduation season this week and there simply wasn't time. I do have some other really cute wovens pulled out and ready to cut so I will probably get to them this week and I should have more time with 1 kiddo out of my hair for a few hours a day.

Things I love about this pattern: It's really easy once you do it, the pockets are super cute and allow for easy color blocking and pops of color. I made one knee length and one shorts with cuff length. There are so many options between the length, the waistbands and the different styles of pockets you could really go crazy! I'm really looking forward to making myself a pair here soon!