Back Button Shorts (you make the rockin' world go round)

I didn’t quite get to everything I’d hoped as part of Elsie Marley’s Kids Clothes Week challenge.  I still have some projects cut out and ready to go, that I hope to get to one day.  But as for completed items, my yield from last week:  The Good as Gold Tee, the bow ties, and a pair of shorts for my youngest.  

 I had some old corduroy from my mom’s stash that had a nice, wide wale to it.  It’s actually the same corduroy I used to make the ill-fated teddy bear from my first sewing project ever.  You can even see the lines from my rejected pattern attempts on the reverse side of the fabric.  A lot of history, me and this corduroy.   Anyway, I made my almost-two-year old some shorts with it

And don’t hope for any better of a picture of the shorts than this.  I thought I got some good ones of the shorts themselves, and didn’t realize how wrong I was until I uploaded them onto my computer.  By then the shorts were covered in [washable] paint and my model was in bed.  So yeah, this is about as clear a shot of them as there was in the lot I took.

They’re just basic shorts, made from tracing a store-bought pair he has.  I did some hip patch pockets

 

and some back patch pockets I didn’t get any pictures of.  All the pockets are lined in a super light-weight denim, that shows just enough to give a tiny bit of detail.

But my favorite little detail is at the back.  I feel like I’m always looking for ways to add something of interest to my boys’ clothes, without frilling them up or just looking dumb.  So here, I used back tabs and buttons to make the waist adjustable. 

I pretty much love how this turned out.  Elastic shmelastic, I think this might be how all his pants need to adjust from now on.   Or not.  But I do want to use  this again. 

If you want to try it out, it would be super easy to add a back-button adjust to any pant pattern.  Here, I’ll prove it…

 

Start by making the tabs themselves.  You need two pieces, each approximately3 inches wide and five inches long.  I opted to make two curves at one end of each of mine, though this detail was pretty much lost after sewn in the thick corduroy I used.

Fold each in half lengthwise, right sides together

 

Sew, leaving one short end open

Turn, press, top stitch

  

Now take your waistband and cut it so that there is a front piece and a back piece (many waistband patterns already are like this).
If your pattern doesn’t have a separate waistband, cut the top of the pants off at the elastic casing mark. 
You’ll also want to cut out facing pieces that are the same size/shape of the waistband pieces
 

Pin your tabs to the right side of one of the waistband pieces, closed ends pointed toward center, raw edge matching the raw edge of the waistband piece

Layer the other waistband piece on top, right sides together

 

Sew sides together
 

Right sides together, sew the sides of the facing pieces

 
Keeping the tabs pinned in place, turn the waistband to the right side out, leave the facing wrong side out
 
Place the waistband inside the facing, matching seams and raw edges
 

Pin in place
 
sew along the top edge, all the way around.
Turn
 

Press and top stitch
 

Pin the waistband in place on the pants, matching side seams, right sides together
 
Sew along the entire circumference of the pants 

Press and top stitch
 
Put the pants on the child, and pull the tabs toward the back
 

Mark where you need the tabs to be secured in order to fit the waist to the child
 

Sew your buttons on at those markings
 

Make button holes on the tabs

Super easy funky little back-button adjustments.
And you can always add/move buttons as needed, too.

 

Your child will be so impressed, they won’t even know how to express it fully.  Or at all.

But still, kind of a cute little detail, right?

Yeah, well, I like it.

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