Kat's shorts pattern

My sister-in-law's birthday has snuck up on me! It is this week & I have not come up with a pattern from the shorts that she gave me to make them by. My problem is I am concerned that since it is a knit fabric that is very stretchy - I do not know if it fits her according to the fabric's relaxed shape -OR- when the fabric is stretched to fit??????

So I use my ruler to go around the shorts seam allowance , adding 5/8 of an inch & hoping . You would think this would be a piece of cake - BUT - it took me 3 hours to take apart her shorts! Those stitches just did not want to come apart. They had decided that they were to be united until the very end &  they gave a run for my money. My bursitis in my right shoulder was really screaming at me by the time I had finished taking them apart.

Ok, here's the first one , now onto the front part. Our weather today was lovely -a little chilly but I managed to hang out our laundry & it dried in no time flat because of the steep breeze.That's one way to clear your head. LOL

Well, you should know by now that I Always have to get myself into some kind of trouble & this time It just happened to be with my rotary cutter. It just quit rolling & I thought it was packed with too much lint behind the blade so I took it apart to clean it & yep-couldn't figure out how to get it back?? I know I got lost on this project for 45 minutes. I finally went online looking for fiskars rotary assembly . The fiskars site was no help-they had a written explanation that did me NO Good because I am a visual person . Finally I accidentally stumbled onto a blog(thank goodness for blogs) and got a description with pictures. The funny part was that it looked just like what I had been doing -but for some reason it just started to roll???????I guess that "sewing fairy" decided to give me a break???
http://sewingnovice.com/2011/04/08/changing-a-rotary-cutter-blade/http://sewingnovice.com/2011/04/08/changing-a-rotary-cutter-blade/
thanks to her blog I was finally up and trying again.

You can see that while I was lost in the battle with Mr. Rotary that Miss Rosie was very happy to take charge of the fabric for me . She REALLy got into that job!

You might say that she thinks she is the "cat's meow" & I would agree with her. Even when she takes a "catnap" - while on duty - she always keeps one eye open.

With all of the help I have had I finally got my first pair of shorts cut out, but I am too tired to tackle the next lesson they will teach me! ALL DAY LONG! For one project .

By discovering that my Sister-in-law's birthday is this week - I ALSO DISCOVERED that January is coming to an end. Hum? This is the month that I always plan to hide away & read a book or do some crocheting or do some house projects -but some how it just always flys by at neckbreak speed. So, it is a good thing that I have learned to cherish each day that comes my way. :-)