Board Shorts - 1

Among the many things I have been doing the last few weeks besides running up and down to London and minding the New-to-me-Pattern company contest on Pattern Review was finally having a go at the Board Shorts pattern I hope to use to make up several pairs of shorts to send to Ethiopia. As you may remember, I have sent skirts off for the girls, but now I want to do some things for the boys.

I was gifted this Jalie pattern not long ago.

For the first one I thought I would try to make it like the pattern says. (Very hard for me!)

However, I decided to definitely deviate from the idea of Velcro fly fastenings to a zip. I also left off the little inside coin pocket and the little tie adjustment tabs for now.

The side panels are meant to be colour blocked. So, immediately after realising I hadn't fussed about stripe matching when I cut it, I decided to tape the side pieces together and future models, if colour blocked, will only have it in the different panels. However, I had got on a roll when I cut this first one and had cut 2. so...more stripes not matching on the sides. Oh well. I may even try to adapt this panel to include a large pocket for stones and other things boys need to carry around.

I haven't sewed from a pattern I didn't draft (or use pattern drafting software) for about 15 years. This pattern is one where you have to trace the size you want from nested patterns for a very wide range of sizes. I chose to do a size 10, as it was nearer the measurements I am going by. It wasn't too difficult, but all the patterns are on the one sheet, front and back, so you need a large space to do the tracing. I used my dot and cross pattern paper I purchased when I finished C+G.

If you look at the photo above, you can see the pattern also had only illustrations to follow for the directions. Not too much of a problem, but you really have to look at the illustration for things like what the notches look like to work out which pieces to sew together. So, cue unpicking the zip area of the front because I mistook it for the back in the illustrations. (That was when I was still worrying about doing it 'right'.) Some of the other steps required talking it out loud to my friend Pat to work out what it wanted me to do.

Eventually, I got the shorts to the place where they need hemming and that is where they are now.

I was sort of sewing these along with the contestants in the New-to-me-Pattern company contest (I couldn't enter because I was managing it.) However, I have decided to put wide elastic in the back section in order to make it more adjustable for my friend when she tries to work out which child needs them the most. I will sew it to the seam allowance under the facing.

Perhaps I can do that tomorrow and clear the table for the next major project. (I have been working in a small space on the table about 24in square while these different shorts bits and other things are encroaching further and further!)

and for future pairs, I will pick and choose from the instructions and change to methods I decide will work best for the function I intend for the shorts. As you can see, they aren't made up from fabric meant for surfing anyway.