Swimwear Tour: Swim and Surf Shorts

I’m super excited to have been invited to take part in the Summer Swimwear Tour hosted by Ajaire, Jess and Saskia. I don’t own too many swimwear patterns so it was fun to be able to choose a new pattern to try out. I had already purchased the women’s version of the Swim and Surf shorts pattern by Gracious Threads and decided to make the girl’s version for Silly Bean.

Boardshort fabric was impossible to find locally and I wasn’t sure about buying online mainly because the shipping situation with Canada Post was up in the air for a little while there. So I bought a XXXL men’s boardshorts on deep discount from Old Navy and was able to get a pair of shorts out of them for Silly Bean. There’s enough left over I could make something for their dolls too.

The original Old Navy shorts:

The new Swim and Surf shorts:

Note: When I took the modelled shots it was before I fixed the elastic to have all three rows of elastic. My oldest hates modelling for me so getting her to try things on is like pulling teeth sometimes. So I had to take advantage of the fitting time to be also picture time.

Silly Bean lasted a few minutes, and then Miss V wanted to try them on. So Miss V ran around the yard wearing them. They had been playing in the sprinkler just before the photos were taken and already had swimsuits on.

I was hoping that the gold bias trim would make Silly Bean like them, but no go. She wants nothing to do with them. (I should have used pink trim instead!) I think that was part of why she wouldn’t model for me. Blue looks so pretty on her but she’s very into pink and girly stuff. Luckily they fit Miss V fine.

I blended sizes and sewed the size 4 width with the size 6 length for my skinny minny 6-year-old Silly Bean. 3-year-old Miss V’s waist measurement is just a tiny bit smaller and she fits into the size 3. The size 4 fits her fine though and she has growing room. I had cut the shorts at the swim length, and it makes a good run length for Miss V ha. I also omitted the drawstring for these. They look cute with the drawstring but honestly I like the look better with the grommets than with buttonholes but I didn’t have any on hand.

I love that there is an optional integrated swim bottoms included so that you could wear these alone for swimming and not need to wear with a separate bikini bottom. AND since they’re made for woven fabrics, you could use the pattern to sew up some regular shorts as well.

The pattern includes the printing by layers option which makes it easy to blend sizes. I really like all the patterns I’ve sewn up so far from Gracious Threads, and can’t wait to make myself a pair of swim shorts too. I know I’d feel a lot more comfortable wearing a pair of those in public.

Thanks so much for including me on the tour!