Pattern Testing the Swim and Surf Shorts by Gracious Threads + Giveaway!

I have a very special place in my heart for Jessica from Gracious Threads. First, because she gave me my very first pattern testing gig for the Starfish Shorts. Second, because she lives super close to me and I love to know that people are designing patterns in my own backyard!

 ... but seriously, how cute is this little bug! She had a lot of fun playing while I snapped photos back then, but we've definitely both gotten better at photos over the last 15 months.

I decided to hit up the thrift store for fabric for this pattern test because there is no board short (microfibre) fabric to be found anywhere in Edmonton and I didn't have the time or patience to order any online. I ended up finding two different pairs of shorts to use for this test. The blue pair are a men's large and cost $3.99 and the stripes are a youth size 14 and cost $4.99.

These Swim and Surf Shorts are a size 2 for my mini 3 year old. There are two length options with this new pattern but I chose to use the shorter length. This first pair was made with the board short fabric for the main and waistband and quilting cotton made into binding.  There is instructions right in the pattern tutorial to make your own binding. I also included the optional swim bottoms with this pair. I absolutely love the colour pairing of the dark blue (my 3 year old's favourite colour at the moment) with the bright pink to make them girly!

I couldn't be happier with how this second pair of Swim and Surf Shorts turned out. I ended up having to use the stripes turned vertical for the waistband in order to have enough length for the fabric (one of the joys of upcycling) but to be honest I think it worked out great as an accent. I also painstakingly removed the binding from the original pair using my seam ripper and re-used it for this new pair. I decided not to put the swim bottoms in this one because I have a purple women's swimsuit that I will be making into a 2 piece suit for her in the next few weeks.

 ...And now for the best part, my very first giveaway. Jessica from Gracious Threads has donated a copy of this amazing pdf sewing pattern for me to give away for free! Just post a comment at the bottom of this blog post telling me who you will make these shorts for if you win the pattern and I will choose a winner using random.org on Thursday, June 23rd around 8pm MST.

Thanks for stopping by!

Read more about these shorts on the Gracious Threads Blog

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