Tuesday, July 5, 2011

a new pair of racer shorts


This is about all I've had time for lately.  I saw this tutorial on the Made blog and knew it would be a great project to try.  Instead of hemming the shorts, binding is added to the edges of the short's front and back before joining the two pieces together and it creates this fun and laid back look.

I am pleasantly surprised at how much I liked making these.  I thought for sure I would get tired of all that binding, but I thought it was kind of fun.  It would probably be even more fun (not to mention faster) if I used ready-made binding.  Yes.  I made my own binding because I go around looking for trouble.


I also added some back pockets.  I think that this pattern is the ultimate low-key shorts pattern, so they really don't need pockets.  But after working with these cotton stripes, I didn't think they screamed "laid back lazy Sunday" or " pick up basketball game" as well as I wanted them to.  So I added the pockets to make the design a little more intentional to go with the drama of the stripes.

I really, really like the look of these shorts.  I used some fabric that I had on hand and an old shorts pattern for these.  I don't think it's the perfect fabric (or fit) to showcase the comfortable look that Dana created, but I certainly have a lot more stash fabric to get through and plenty of tissue paper to draft a new pattern.