Cute Summer Clothing

Today we hit our first 100 degree temperature of the year.  As I said everyone here is looking for their summer clothing.  I started this item with a plain pair of stretch white shorts I got at the thrift store.

I have been practicing my doodles for a year or so, and the girl on the yellow piece of paper is my latest doodle.  I really liked how she turned out.  I hate to admit that I did her in a meeting I was attending. In case you can't see, she has create art in her hair and a list of things I need to do on the paper.

 So I took some of these doodles and transferred them to the white shorts.  I drew the face and the flowers on a piece of tissue paper.  Pinned the paper to the shorts where I wanted my designs. Then I dropped my feed dogs. Put black thread in my machine. Set my machine on a very small zig-zag and using the pattern on the tissue paper, stitched around and put the outline of the design on my shorts.  After I completed that part, I tore off the tissue paper leaving the black outline on the shorts. Then I went back in and did a heavier zig-zag over the black outline.  To complete the design, I went back in and filled in the spaces, some of which I drew in with a chalk pencil.  Even though the shorts were denim, because of the denseness of some of my stitching, I needed to use a stableizer on the back side of my design.  I used a wash away type that feels like fabric.  I perfer that to the wash away stableizer that feels like plastic.  After finishing the project, I threw the shorts into the washer and here is what I ended up with.

Doodling does not come easy to me, but with practice I feel I am getting better.  Both my husband and I like the way these shorts turned out. Something interesting to wear in the ever hotter, spring temperatures of the desert Southwest.