done and done!! the kcwc week is over. I’m excited to say that with modest goals and a little snip of sewing every day I finished everything I was aiming for. both boys have a new t-shirt and shorts made from (almost entirely) used clothing!
these were the final item. after lots of seam ripping and diligent ironing to get just enough fabric out of an old pair of shorts…the boy has candy-stripe beachcombers! I made the pockets, waistband, and bias tape out of a fat quarter of flannel (my one divergence from used clothing) because this guy loves comfort and I knew he would appreciate a flannel waist. I didn’t make the t-shirt he is wearing but wish I did. the tie is fake, I just felt like the front of the pants needed a little something and I love the way ties look.
the back pockets are down-sized from the actual pockets of the shorts. one of the best details of the original shorts was the thick white stitching. by selectively cutting I was able to spare the hem stitch and back pocket stitching, which I’m really excited about. 
and, here they are in action. he likes them and that is a huge accomplishment. in fact, he’s muddying them as I write this in our backyard with a game of ‘construction’, which is really just a game of pouring water and moving dirt.
I have noticed that in real-life wear and tear they tend to fall down a bit. And, that leads me an question. anyone know the rule of thumb for elastic? I measure it at his waist measurement assuming that the 3/4 of an inch to 1 inch that is used up when sewing it together will make it tight enough to stay up but it doesn’t seem like that is quite enough for the degree to which my boys ‘wear’ their clothes. anyone have other ideas? they would be quite welcome.
Those are super cute! I just made a pair of shorts for my 2 year old from an Ottobre pattern and a pair of grandpa’s old pants. Ottobre suggested (for a size 2) to measure the child’s waist and subtract 5cm when cutting the elastic. They didn’t mention how much they account for in overlapping to sew the elastic together so I subtracted 4cm from his waist size and overlapped by 1cm. I still find them a bit big and unfortunately from the design I can’t do much to take them in.
Fantastic! Exactly the kind of rule of thumb I was looking for!