"Koala-ty" Lounge Shorts

...I apologize sincerely for the pun.

Happy 4th of July to the USA folks out there! I hope y'all are getting to relax and have some fun. I'm getting my sew on this long weekend.

I HAD to have these PJ shorts I found at Goodwill!

Look at the little koala faces! Too cute! Problem: shorts are XS. My booty: NOT XS by any stretch of the imagination

I unpicked the sides (the 'hip' seams) and then snipped the elastic

Here you can see the whole picture with the front and back separated at the waist.

I then took an old tank top and cut from it my side panels, or inserts. I did a kind of scalloped edge because I thought it would look odd flat across, since the corners of the legs on the shorts are rounded. The gray stripes tone in nicely for an "intentionally mixed patterns" look.

Pinned in the panels. On the right side, you can see my panel is extending beyond the top edge of the shorts. This is so I could fold it over and make a casing for the piece of elastic I would be adding to make the waist bigger. 

Sewn in, but no casing and elastic yet

Side view, so you can get a better idea. I then added a new chunk of elastic in each side and sewed the casing over it. This was fiddly; the 'right' way to do it would have been to unpick the whole waistband and just add a whole new string of elastic. See kids, sometimes the lazy way ends up being harder!

But here they are! Sorry for the terrible leg photo

On the sewing table, so you can see the whole thing

Here's the back. But wait! What's that?

A pocket! I really prefer my loungewear/PJs to have some kind of pocket in case I need to throw in my phone or something. This pocket was taken whole off of a top I previously refashioned. I think it's kind of like eucalyptus leaves :D

And there ya have it! Not bad IMO for a first attempt at 'pants' refashioning. They are so comfy and fit perfectly. I'm even wearing them right now as I write this post :)

Back to the machine!

~Illy