Shorts On The Line: Lace Shorts

Welcome to my little part of the Shorts On The Line series!  If you're wondering how I got so lucky to hang out with such an amazing group of crafty women, well don't worry, so am I!  So you'll just have to forgive me for taking a second to thank Carla and Rachael for inviting me to be a part of this fantastic series.  Thank you!  But in addition to that I want to thank them for giving me the kick in the butt that I needed to actually get around to sewing my first(!) ever pair of shorts (well, if you don't count culottes as shorts, that is).

I actually bought Grainline Studio's Maritime Shorts pattern several months ago with every intention to whip them up in the spring. But then I totally chickened out and the pattern just laid around our house, buried under the mounds of papers that call our desk home.

Until now that is.

See that, people?  Shorts!  For me!

Now I did do something very un-Carolyn-like in making these shorts - I actually made a muslin!  But I mostly did it out of fear because I was really worried about getting the fit right since I've never sewn shorts before.  Unfortunately I made my muslin out of some left-over quilting cotton and so I thought that the size four was going to be a perfect fit.  But when I sewed up my first pair out of a bottom weight fabric that was thicker than the muslin cotton, the fit was a bit tighter (and therefore shorter) than I was looking for.  I hemmed and hawed and groaned over it for several days and then made my peace with the fact that I just wouldn't be happy wearing shorts that tight and short.  So it was back to the drawing tracing board as I traced out a size six and kept my fingers crossed that things would go better this time around.  And fortunately they did.

I purchased the gray lace overlay fabric at Pacific Fabrics back when I went to the Sewing and Stitchery Expo and the underlining is a cream cotton lawn that was hidden in a package of fabric that my little sister brought back for me from Pakistan.  I've been eyeing the fabrics that she brought back for ages but I've been a bit terrified at cutting into them and messing something up.  I figured though that if I was eventually going to find the courage to cut into them, some plain cotton lawn was the safest place to start.  Oh, and no handmade garment would be complete without a little something extra thrown in, right?  Hence the bright pink lace hem tape.  Ka-pow!

As for the pattern itself, I love Jen's garment construction because it results in a garment that looks handmade rather than homemade.  I mean look at this fly front!

It's a little sewing miracle in itself that it looks this good considering that I've never sewn a fly front before and that I had no idea what I was doing when I put it together.  Instead I just blindly followed Jen's instructions and hoped that this little sewing trust exercise would work out in the end.  And for the record, I totally trust her now.

I did choose to leave off the back pockets because I figured that I wouldn't really use them since the pattern already has very functional front pockets.  Plus back pockets would probably distract from the lacey awesomeness of the fabric.  I also chose to hand sew the waistband and the hems on the legs of the shorts to make these little suckers as pretty, pretty as possible.  Hand sewn hems aren't just for dresses, you know.  Show a little love to your shorts!

Now go check out some of the other great posts that are part of this fantastic series.   But most importantly - go sew some shorts!

This post is part of shorts on the line sewalong hosted by imagine gnats and small + friendly, sponsored by Jo-Ann, Pretty Prudent/Pellon®, and Hawthorne Threads.

6/10 - Petit a Petit and Family and Schwin & Schwin

6/11 - Delia Creates and Buzzmills

6/12 - Cirque du Bebe and Sanae Ishida

6/13 - Fake It While You Make It and elsie marley

6/14 - No Big Dill and Max California and Designs by Sessa

6/17 - girl inspired and Casa Crafty

6/18 - Frances Suzanne and Caila Made

6/19 - Made by Rae and Craftstorming

6/20 - Noodlehead and emmyloubeedoo

6/21 - Siestas & Sewing and Made with Moxie

6/24 - imagine gnats and small + friendly