Skirt-shorts (not skorts, ok?)

stripy skirt shorts

Anyone with a nine year old daughter will completely understand how increasingly hard it becomes to appease one’s little darling in the wardrobe department. My offers of handmade dresses and skirts are still mostly being politely refused but I’m ok with that because it keeps the project list nice and selfish!

skirt shorts

But every now and then she gets a bee in her bonnet about a must-have item of clothing that even Primani just can’t deliver. This weekend it was a pair of skirt-shorts. Not skorts, you understand. There is a difference apparently. I could see the little foot-stamp brewing when I Googled pictures of skorts and it was a while before the penny dropped. The rolling eyes of a nine year-old are a picture I can tell you!

stripy skirt shorts

Getting the picture was one thing. Getting the pattern was another. Only one thing for it. Had to self-draft. I’m not quite ready to share my winging-ways until I’ve perfected it. But suffice to say it worked, kind of. Well totally if you judge by the response of the recipient!

I’ve had this stripy jersey in stash for some time. Yes! Can you believe it? Another piece of stash successfully busted! Doesn’t appear to have reduced the pile any though.

stripy skirt shorts

I used the side-cutter attachment on my Brother Innovis to create some faux overlocked seams and I used a regular zig-zag stitch for the hem and the elastic casing.

The ‘brief’ was to create shorts that looked totally like a skirt. Mission accomplished though I think perhaps I made them a little too full – the waistband is really tightly gathered. Little Miss O assures me they are comfortable enough but I think they could do with a little less volume.

stripy skirt shorts

Who would have guessed that a pair of skirt-shorts would encourage such climbing skills? Making them was easy enough. Getting them off her to put them in the wash might be an entirely different matter!

stripy skirt shorts
Beautiful photos as always by my very talented fella, Daniel Selway.

38 Replies to “Skirt-shorts (not skorts, ok?)”

    1. Thanks Maren. Yes I did suggest that might be what she was after but I got a definite head shake when I showed her some of those. She has her own ideas! 🙂

  1. Her striped skirt shorts are so adorable and perfect for tree climbing! She’s definitely on to a trend – skirt shorts are all the rage for my daughter too – and she’s 20!

  2. These are so cool! I’ve just given in and made my eldest a couple of pairs of shorts from a Burdastyle pattern. If she sees these she’ll be nagging me to make her some the same. And she totally agrees with your daughter about skorts.

  3. Thank you Jo. And good reminder. I keep forgetting that I have a few great short patterns in my Burda mag collection. x

  4. They’re brilliant!! Don’t they have such clear ideas about what things are called?! Pattern drafting aside, they look like they’re going to be a pretty straightforward make. My 7 year old has yet to shun her handmade wardrobe – maybe that day isn’t far off though.

  5. They are fabulous, great work! Your girl looks so very happy in them.
    Perhaps you could get her to have a word with my 5year old who this morning requested a pair of full length evening gloves. A pair of skirt-shorts would be much more achievable!

  6. My eldest always had her own ideas too. Now that she is older it’s worse! She sends me pics and then says I want this, but I want you to do this and this to it… Sigh… The skirt-shorts are adorable! And I do like a stripey fabric. ~Laurie

    1. I used to do that to my mum who soon gave up on my and told me I was capable of doing it myself. Needless to say, at that age I just went without!

  7. I hear you…my 5 year old has eye rolling and fashion demands already down pat. There is no swaying them at all. In this case that was a very good thing. The skirt-shorts are fabulous and she looks beyond adorable in them.

  8. I remember these, when I was a bit younger than 9 (scarily that was less than 10 years ago!), they were all the rage! My mother cam in and looked over my shoulder at your post and said “If you think 9 is bad, wait until 16” with a nod in my direction -_-

Leave a Reply to Maren Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.