With a few simple sewing techniques, you can upcycle one XL T-shirt into two pairs of shorts for your average kid under ten. In my first tutorial, I showed you how to sew a quick-and-dirty pair of kid shorts from the sleeves and shoulders of an upcycled T-shirt. This tutorial requires a little more sewing, but the shorts are also a lot cuter and, depending on your kiddo’s height, they could be made to be as long as capri length. Here’s how:
As with the shirt sleeve shorts tutorial, you’ll be using a well-fitted pair of your kid’s pants as a template. Iron the pants if needed, then fold them exactly in half, front sides together, and smooth them out. See that sticky-outy part at the butt in the photo above? That’s the crotch curve, and it’s very important. Also iron your upcycled T-shirt until it’s perfectly smooth, and fold it exactly in half, back sides together, taking special care to perfectly match the sleeves and to keep the underarm seams flat. Arrange the pants so that the front is lined up with the side edges of the shirt, with the butt of the pants facing the middle of the shirt. The bottom hem of the shirt will be the bottom hem of your T-shirt shorts, so position the pants to get the length that you want. I always sew the shirt sleeves shorts first, so that I won’t accidentally overlap any of the shirt’s shoulder area, but if you aren’t making shirt sleeve shorts, as well, then you simply need to keep the pants template below the shirt’s armpit. Trace a line around your pants template about 1/2″ out, so that you’ll have a seam allowance, and add an extra inch or so to the top of the waist so that you can sew a waistband for your shorts. Cut through all layers along your traced lines. Next » Unfold your two shorts pieces. If you want to add any appliques to the shorts, now is the time to do it while they’re the easiest to sew on. If there’s an interesting graphic on the upcycled T-shirt that you’d like to use, cut it out and sew it directly onto the shorts. The edges won’t ravel, so you don’t have to turn them under or finish the raw edges in any way. Re-fold the shorts pieces with right sides together, and pin each piece from the bottom finished hem up to that sticky-outy butt point–these will be the legs of your shorts. Sew both the legs up using any stitch suitable for jersey knit. Leave one shorts leg inside-out, and stuff the right-side-out shorts leg inside the inside-out one, smoothing everything down until the two legs are perfectly aligned, one inside the other. You’ll see a U-shaped curve that represents the crotch curve from your template. Pin the shorts together along this curve, and sew. Sew again along the bottom of the U using the same stitch–crotch seams get a ton of hard wear, and they’re much easier to sew strongly the first time than to mend later. Straighten out the shorts, removing one shorts leg from inside the other, and you should easily be able to see the shorts’ waist now. Fold the top edge of the waist down about 1″ to the wrong side of the shorts and sew it to form the waistband, leaving a couple of inches unsewn to insert the elastic. Take your child’s waist measurement, and measure out a length of 3/4″ or 1/2″ elastic to exactly that length. Pin a safety pin to one end of the elastic, and use that end to thread the elastic through the waistband. When the elastic is completely inserted, overlap the ends, sew them together very strongly, re-insert them into the waistband, and finish sewing closed that last opening in the waistband. And that’s how to sew two pairs of kids’ shorts from one upcycled T-shirt! Did you miss part one? Check it out right here!
