Linen shorts for my honey

I make lots of clothes for other people--the kids, especially, but other family members too.  After apparently feeling neglected, my husband finally expressed his dismay that I hadn't ever made anything for him to wear.  Sure, I made him a quilt when we were dating, but it wasn't that great (we don't even own it anymore!).  So I finally moved it up to the top of my to-do list, grabbed a pair of his favorite shorts (that they don't make anymore), and set out to recreate them.  Since I couldn't take them apart like I did for my own top, I laid them on "Pattern Ease" and traced the pieces.  They had this odd crotch gusset thing (not sure if there is a more appropriate word to describe this!), zip and button fly, side pockets and no separate waistband.   I'm growing to love the challenge of reverse engineering a piece of clothing, and the zipper was definitely something of which I feel pretty proud!

With only the hem to finish, I realized that the pocket-less back of the shorts looked a little weird.  The originals had a welt pocket, but I figured I could leave it off.  Bad decision.  After a quick Google search, I found a brilliant tutorial for installing welt pockets.  However, the instructions didn't give dimensions of the welts (it was working with a specific pants pattern), but I managed to design the pocket and welts myself.  Wahoo!  Given it's my first welt pocket (and without a pattern!), I think it turned out pretty well.  I've put up a mini-tutorial describing how to draft a welt pocket.

The husband says he'll "definitely wear them", so I call that a success.  Check "shorts for my honey" off the to-do list!