Shorts On The Line: Puppet Show Shorts

Can I just say how excited I am to be back for another year of Shorts on The Line?  Because I am.

And I'm even more excited this time around because it's been hot, hot, hot around here lately which makes for some perfect shorts-wearing weather.  Now, when it cam time to pick a pattern to make this time around I have to say that I came very close to picking one of the many new (or new-to-me) patterns that are out there, but in the end I remembered that I'm trying to hard to sew with what I have on hand this year and that includes patterns.  Because if you're anything like me you have an embarrassing number of patterns at home that you've never even made (please tell me I'm not the only one who has this problem).

Like this Oliver and S Puppet Show Shorts pattern.  I actually bought this pattern almost two years ago specifically to make the shorts, but somehow I never got around to making them (although I did use the dress part of the pattern to make this dress, so it wasn't a total waste I guess).  I love that Shorts on the Line provided me with the kick in the rump that I needed to finally make a pair of these ridiculously cute shorts.

And they are ridiculously cute (or maybe it's just the chubby toddler legs in them that make them so cute).  For the fabric, I decided to go with some dark gray and white seersucker because 1) nothing says summer like seersucker and 2) I love the way that you can make different design elements on a pattern pop simply by changing the orientation of the stripes on seersucker.

Shorts? Vertical stripes
Waistband and pockets? Horizontal stripes
Bindings? Diagonal stripes.

Easy peasy.

Oh, and a little flat piping on the pockets for good measure (and because I cannot resist piping).  And a completely non-functional button on the front because, well, because I wanted to.  I kind of love the way that these shorts turned out, but more important I really loved making them.  I've had a spate of sewing failures around here lately and this project was a much-needed win.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to dig through my patterns to find out what other little treasures I have buried in there!  Hopefully it'll include some more shorts patterns!

PS - And here's my PSA message of the day.  When your child does this pose, run - don't walk - to the nearest bathroom.  Someone (who shall remain nameless) may have peed all over her new shorts about two minutes after I put them on her.  Lesson learned.

This post is part of the Shorts on the Line sewalong.  Shorts on the Line 2014 is sponsored by: Britex Fabrics, Hawthorne Threads, miss matatabi, and Soak Wash.  Hosted by imagine gnats, small + friendly, and Kollabora.