Yeah, I'll explain that photo in a bit.

Henry has quickly adapted to a stay at home lifestyle. He only wants to wear soft pants. We call them "comfies." It's the child's version of yoga pants.

In light of his new found love of fashion and since the temperatures are rising in Texas, I thought it was about time to sew this kid some shorts. I've never attempted boy clothes before, and I totally winged this project. That's how I roll.

I took a pair of last year's sleep shorts to use as a go-by and made a pattern. I enlarged the shorts to fit a now bigger child with a little bit of room to grow. The pattern is approximately a 4T and you can download it for free here. Feel free to make them longer or shorter or smaller or bigger based on a pair of your kid's shorts that fit well.

The goods:

1/2 yd of t-shirt knit fabric
3/4" elastic (I used fun colorful elastic because I wanted it exposed. Got it at JoAnn's). I needed 21" based on H's waistline
Coordinating thread

1. Cut out your pattern pieces. Stack the A & B pieces as shown in the photo below and cut 2, being sure to align the pattern with the fold of your fabric.

See how they are already looking like shorts? Nice.

2. Pin up the sides thusly. You'll only stitch the straight parts, not the curved leg parts. This will basically give you a tube.

3. If you fold the newly stitched "tube" the other direction, it will look like shorts again. Phew.

Pin the curved crotch part and stitch that up.

Even more like shorts. We're really doing well here.

4. Still working on the "wrong" side of the fabric, pin up the bottoms of the leg holes 1/2".

Now enjoy the entire pinning process in GIF format, because it's fun.

5. OK. Focus. Time to stitch those legs. I used a zig-zag stitch to get the sergered look like my inspiration shorts. If I had a serger - well, I do, but it's broken or I don't know how to work it or both - I would definitely have used the serger for this. To get the look, though, just do a zig-zag stitch, and then reinforce it with a straight stitch, just to be safe.

6. Time to get the elastic ready. Pin the right sides together, sew the ends, and then fold that seam over and sew it so it lays flat. You now have a circle.

7. Time to prep the shorts to attach them to the elastic. Set your machine to the longest stitch you can. For me, it's a 5 (whatever that means).

Sew the stitch and resist the urge to backstitch. Take the fabric and gently pull the fabric away from the end of the thread, gathering it as you go. Spread the gathers to make it as even as possible, until it is the same width/circumference as your elastic.