Clothes can be expensive when you are buying for 13 people.  To cut costs, we usually did the whole hand-me-down thing.  And a sibling sews. 

But one time our mother tried her hand at it.  She decided to make shorts for all the boys.  She chose some really hideous large print in a scratchy fabric, got an easy (and ugly) drawstring pattern, and set to work.

A few straight sewing lines later, and several hours, she proudly displayed her final product.

The lines were actually suprisingly straight, but she’d sewn the crotch on the outside.  She refused to admit it, and made one of the boys try the shorts on.  Of course, he was incredibly uncomfortable.

I really don’t remember whether he was forced to keep wearing them or not.  Fortunately for all of us, she decided sewing took too much time and never tried again.

Whew!  Potential disaster averted!