{Tutorial} For the Love of Monkey Bars Shorts (aka Bike Shorts)

My daughter, Stella, loves the monkey bars!  To my shock, she is pretty darn awesome at zipping across them, too!  

She also happens to love wearing dresses.  

Which don't go well with being monkey-like.  

Enter...the *For the Love of Monkey Bars* Shorts.  

A few weeks ago, I saw an awesome tutorial to make leggings using just two pieces of fabric, at Make It and Love It - One of my all*time FAVORITE blogs.  That girl, Ashley, has THE best ideas!  Not only was this tutorial perfect because my daughter loves leggings, but I *needed* an excuse (and some encouragement!) to sew with my twin needle.

**Tip 1:  I chose an old shirt and used the bottom hem as the hem on the shorts.  One less step!  

**Tip 2:  I used the stripes as my guide for how long the shorts should be (ie hem should be at the blue stripe).

{Tutorial}:: For the *Love of Monkey Bars* Shorts

1.  Fold shirt so the side seams are on top of each other.  (See the sleeves up?)  Place the folded leggings (or your pattern) along the shirt fold and the hem of the shirt lining up with the desired shorts length.  2.  Allow room for your elastic.  3.  Mark/chalk the outline.  Remember to add seam allowance.  I used 1/2 inch.  4.  Flip the leggings over and do the same along the other fold.  Cut them out.  

5.  Pin two pieces right sides together.  Sew the pinned seams.  6.  Open up and pin the crotch/inseam together.  7.  The twin needle worked perfectly!  8.  Fold and pin casing for the elastic waist.  Sew and leave an opening for the elastic.  Feed elastic in, sew up...Done!

I found this Twin Needle Tutorial from Ashley at Make It and Love It and followed her directions.  But...I don't have the same sewing machine as her sooooo.....This is what happened when I didn't read the manual for my machine for using a twin needle.  Eeek! 

Apparently, it required more than just swapping the needle out and adding a spool of thread.  But after reading the directions it worked perfectly!   

I highly recommend reading your manual if you have never used your twin needle before.  

These "under shorts" or "bike shorts" can run $10-15!  And they are, pretty much necessary.  Mine cost $0.  I love $0.  

I suppose if Stella loved swinging as much as the monkey bars, I would have called these the "for the love of swings shorts".  But not the case.  She has only opted to wear shorts one time all school year!  I bet she is a sight to see- climbing and swinging and being all wild-animal-like in.her.dresses.  

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