Liz makes a pair of simple shorts

Remember that time when my mom mailed me a ton of fabric? Well I do, and this awesome floral print was among that awesome collection and I knew I had to do something special with it. Since it's getting way too hot here in good ol' New Mexico, I decided to make a pair of shorts. Oh, by the way, we're going to Kentucky at the end of the month (the same week as my birthday!), and I betcha I'll need some brand new shorts there too. Here's how I made them and how you can make them too:

You'll need a yard of fabric, a pair of shorts that fit well, a large sheet of newspaper (or gift wrap or tracing paper or just about anything you can use to draw a pattern on), a marker, a safety pin, a sewing machine, scissors and enough elastic to go around your waist (I used sport elastic; it rocks!).

First grab your sheet of newspaper or whatever, and place your folded pair of shorts on top of it. Make sure the crotch of the shorts are totally pulled out. As you can tell, this is not a pair of shorts. It's a jumper I got from Walmart for a dollar once. Anyway, that works too. Trace around them, making sure to leave seam allowance! If your shorts have an elastic waist, stretch them out as you trace.

Cut out the pattern piece and make four identical pieces. It looks like I only have two lying on the floor in this picture, but I really have four. They're on top of each other.

Now place two of them right sides together and sew along the dotted lines. Do the same for the other two.

Now unfold them and place them right sides together. Sew along the dotted lines. These are the sides of your shorts.

Keeping them right sides together, sew along these dotted lines. This will be the crotch of your shorts.

Now to make an elastic casing, fold the waist over twice, making sure the elastic will fit. Pin in place and sew, leaving a two inch gap for the next step.

With the safety pin attached to one end of the elastic, slide it through the casing. Pull both ends out afterwards and sew them together.

Before you sew the gap closed, grab a small piece of ribbon, fold it in half and pin it under the gap. This will act as a make-shift tag so you know where the back of your shorts are! My mom taught me that little trick forever ago. She's a genius.

To make the hem, fold over twice, pin in place and sew.

Now you have a pair of shorts! In this picture, they look a little lop-sided, but they actually match. I promise!

See! I told you. This is Tyler, my awesome boyfriend.

We took a ton of pictures at the park today. Oh yeah, happy birthday, America!

Then things got weird...

...And we did a lot of jumping.

Oh, here's us jumping again!

And this was fun too. 

Anyway, I hope you guys have a great holiday weekend! I know I will. I'm planning to see friends I haven't seen in a long time. Have fun and be responsible everyone!

And if you happen to have any questions or anything, don't hesitate to ask. Also, if you make these shorts with my tutorial, I'd love to see your finished product! Oh, and sorry I'm not sorry for all of the pictures. What can I say? We had a fun day. :)

PS, you'll also notice that I bought my own domain name! Yay! No more pesky ".blogspot" for this girl. :D

-L