Tea towel shorts

Dollar Store Crafts posted a link to the tea towel skirts from a few days ago along with a tutorial on making baby shorts from a tea towel. I mentioned at the bottom of the skirt post that I'd like to try making some bloomer/shorts, but I've always been a little afraid of sewing patterns. I adapted the dollar store craft pattern to allow the back to be a bit more roomy than the front of the shorts (bigger section cut from part of the tea towel that's going to be the butt seam). Below you can see the tea towel cut and ready to sew.

I sewed each of the two pieces up along where the inside leg seam was and then pinned and sewed the two pieces together along the one seam that runs from the front, under the crotch and up the back of the shorts. All this was hand sewed, because I love being able to listen to music or watch tv late at night at the same time, without the noise of the machine, and I like being able to finish it all by hand in a way that leaves no raw edges on the inside of the pants (I don't own a surger). The last thing to do was sew the hem of the waist over and thread the elastic through for the boingy waist band.

Here's the little lady looking rather pleased with her shorts. She's a tall 4T and I reckon these shorts would be fine up to about 6T if you made the waist band a bit looser. The author at Dollar Store crafts mentioned that her shorts turned out a little too small for her two year old and were more suited to a one year old or infant, but I think these tea towels were bigger. They measured 20 inches wide by 26 inches long.Now I have to get the wee lass (3 years old) to choose the colour she wants her shorts to be out of the other three matching dollar store tea towels I picked up. I think I'll also sew some cutey applique designs on one of the legs of each pair when I'm done making them too. I love how cheap it's turning out to be to get a nice stash of summer cotton skirts and shorts ready!