Making Shorts for Children
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Making Shorts for Children |
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When my kids were younger, I made them lots of shorts a couple of times assembly-line style. Here's how I did it, and it prevented me from messing up. This would work for mass-production of any size shorts or pants that have an elastic casing.
The pattern should have a fold-over waistline casing. If it has a waistband, I don't buy it. Especially for kids' patterns.
Cut straight across the notches. Don't even fuss with them. Too much bother.
However, if you're going to put on pockets, use a pattern with pockets in the side seams. If the shorts have slanted pocket entries, add to your front pattern piece so that the side seam goes straight up. The only marks you will need are for the pocket openings, and this can be done with marking pencil or regular pencil on the pocket and front pieces. Also, you will only need to cut out two pocket pieces, and the assembly is detailed below.
Making pockets with woven fabric? Read the first paragraph of Side Seams with Pockets now to know which edges should be serged first.
I laid out all the pieces on the floor before assembling. The pieces were all right side up. The front pieces were paired up, each piece pointing towards its mate at the crotch point. The back pieces were also paired up, but the sides of the back pieces were next to the sides of the front pieces, so the back pieces pointed away from the front pieces. The scenario was that at the far end of the room, was the lain out shorts A, and from left to right was the right back piece, the right front piece, the left front piece, and the left back piece. Just below that, in another row, were the pieces for shorts B, lain out in the same manner. There were quite a few rows!
If you want pockets, skip to Side Seams with Pockets.
This was accomplished by "folding" in the outside pieces on top of the inside pieces (remember those rows on the floor?). The place where the sides met acted as a "fold line." The left back pieces were placed on top of the left front pieces, with the side seams approximately, not exactly, matching. Likewise the right back pieces and the right front pieces. Then I stacked the left pieces on top of the right pieces. Then I stacked the shorts A assembly on top of the shorts B assembly, then placed that whole stack on top of the shorts C assembly, and so forth. The whole pile was placed to the right of the sewing machine. The top two pieces of fabric were picked up together, a front piece and a back piece. The sides were aligned and sewn together and a pile to the left of the sewing machine was formed from these pairs of sewn pieces. Seam finish of choice.
Not making pockets? Skip to Hems.
For knit fabrics, serging was not required. For woven fabrics, the front side seams and curved pocket edges were serged before the floor layout. Then the entire back edges were serged at the same time as attaching the pockets.
When I made shorts with pockets, only two pocket pieces were cut for each pair of shorts. The pocket pieces were lain on top of the back pieces, right sides together, side seams approximately matching. A pile was made of only the pairings of the back pieces and the pocket pieces. Again, align these pieces at the sewing machine just before stitching a narrow seam allowance. The resultant pile went to the ironing board. The stitched pairings were first ironed flat with the back piece on the bottom. Then the pockets were turned away from the back pieces, and the fold of the pocket pieces was exactly on the seam line. The result was that all back pieces and pocket pieces were face up.
The whole pile was taken back to the floor layout area. The match was found for a pairing of back-and-pocket pieces, which was then turned over, wrong side up, and lain on top of the front piece which was pointing in the same direction. Then the other back-and-pocket piece assembly was lain on top of the other front piece. All back-and-pocket assemblies were placed on front pieces, and all the stacks were piled up and placed to the right of the sewing machine. The side seams were matched at the sewing machine and stitched together. The main difference was that the pocket opening area was baste stitched with some back-tacking at each end of the opening. For the pockets, the side seams were pressed flat. Each front-back-pocket assembly was lain face down, then the pocket and all seam allowances were pressed towards the front. The pocket edges were pinned to the front piece, with the pins pointing towards the inside of the pocket. The pockets were then stitched down about a quarter-inch to the inside of the curved pocket edges.
I finished the hems on the shorts after the side seams were sewn, but before the front center seams were stitched. It's much easier to finish the hems "on the flat," and I also hem sleeves in other garments before sewing the under arm seams.
Serge the raw edges of the hem for woven fabrics. Hem as desired.
Lay out the pairs of left-back-and-front and right-back-and-fronts so that all pieces are right side up. The points of the front crotch curves, which are smaller and less curvy than the back crotch curves, are pointing towards each other in the middle. Fold one assembly over the other so that the front crotch curves are approximately matching. Make a pile of these and place to the right of the sewing machine.
Match and stitch the center front seams from the top to the beginning of the curve. Edge finish of choice. Press front seams flat, then open.
For woven fabrics, this is the time to serge the long waistline edge.
Fold over the waistline casing and press it down. The amount is always at least 3/8" more than the width ot the elastic. I like to place the shorts assembly on the ironing board with the right side down, and steam press the casing width over an Ezy-HemŽ Gauge (I couldn't find mine just now, so I had to look up the name at the Nancy's Notions web site). This is a flat metal piece that would be a rectangle except that one long edge is curved. It has width markings all over it (metric and imperial, or whatever it's called) and is used for turning fabric over to a certain width.
When all the casings were turned to the wrong sides, a pile was made and taken to the sewing machine. The casings were all sewn at the same time so that the shorts were chained together by the thread. The threads between the shorts were then cut, separating the shorts.
I knew how much elastic it would take for each kid's waist, which was - of course - less than the actual waist measurements. I added twice the seam allowance, so for a 5/8-inch seam allowance, I added 1-1/4" to that amount. I always buy elastic by the yard, and depending on the sale I buy 5- or 10-yard cuts so that I don't usually run out. For the assembly-line shorts, I marked the calculated length from one end of the elastic, for "the number of shorts I'm making" times. Placed the other end of the elastic into an elastic puller, which is a rounded-arrow shaped plastic piece with two slits across the wider end. Pulled the elastic through ALL the casings of ALL the shorts so it looked like the shorts were all hung on a clothes line. At the end of elastic opposite the elastic puller, the first pair of shorts was lined up with the end of the elastic. I pinned the shorts to the elastic a couple inches from the end of the elastic. The majority of that shorts' casing was pushed towards the first pin. Likewise, a second pin attached the other end of the shorts' casing to the unstretched elastic so that the first elastic marking met the other end of the casing. The next pair of shorts was also aligned with that same marking on the elastic, so one raw edge on one shorts met a raw edge of the next shorts. The shorts were all aligned and pinned in succession in the same way.
With all the shorts pinned to the elastic, I cut the elastic at each mark, pushing the shorts away from each mark as needed so that I would only cut the elastic, but not the shorts.
Then I stitched the back seams, but only part way down, just as I had stitched the front seams part way down. I also folded open the back seam at the casing and stitched a square or rectangle over the back seam, through the elastic, with a stretch or jersey needle. I also placed a big "X" in the square with a black-ink laundry marker so that my kids would know the back from the front. This was before I started to use purchased tags (mine have "Made with Love by Mary" woven into them) to mark the back of the garments I make.
Next, I sewed the left inseam together and the right inseam together, separately, of course. Then, with the top of the crotch seam attached at both ends, I pulled one leg into the other leg, matched the inseams, and finished stitching the crotch seam.
If you fnd a typographical error or a lapse in logic or want me to explain it better, please let me know!