Hi! It’s Ingrid from Sewingridd again! Here in The Netherlands we are having an incredibly hot summer. So in the last couple of weeks I’ve exclusively been wearing shorts around the house. Normally, I mostly wear them on my holidays, and if the temperature allows it on the weekends, so I have plenty with my 3 favorite pairs. But now I’m wearing them every single day, I started to get bored with them. Suddenly I felt like I needed some more variety, #firstworldproblems. That’s when I decided to make myself some Barton Shorts (aff link). Because nothing beats some handmade breeziness!
The Barton shorts were a quick and simple sew. The pattern comes with two different views and you can choose between a shorter and longer length. They are perfect for summer days, sports, the beach, relaxing at home, or even as sleepwear. To me they always stood out because of the kind of sporty round edged option, with the bias or lace finishing. Although I super love that look, I wasn’t sure if it would nicely combine with my style and the tops that I own. So when I recently took a closer look, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there’s also a straight hem option. After some more consideration, I finally opted for the latter.
My version is made of this thin, woven yet drapey fabric which I suspect to be viscose. It has a white border print with which I fell in love! Still it had to wait in my stash for over a year or two, before I found the perfect project to use it on. I just admire the way a border print transforms a final garment into something even more unique and professional looking. Therefore I also used a border printed fabric on the Catalina Dress I made recently. For these shorts I was in doubt whether to use the print like I did here, or vertically on the side seams. In the end I decided to use it horizontally on the bottom of the legs, because I might also want to make a top with it later on, from the same fabric. That would make a cool fake jumpsuit then!
Regarding the length of the shorts, I picked the short length, but lengthened that with 3 cm so I could do a wider than prescribed hem. But when I tried the Bartons on before hemming, I realized that I liked the longer length like it was. So in the end I think it’s about the length of the longer version, haha.
In conclusion I love these shorts! They were such an easy sew! And as always the instructions were super clear, which really helps me to learn how to sew better. One disadvantage is that my waistband slides down or up, but for me that’s a common problem since I have a muffin top shaped stomach. Next time making this pattern I’d probably lengthen the raise a little so the waistband can just stay in my natural waist, without causing a wedgie or sliding down. Since I made these shorts, they’ve already been worn a lot at home and will certainly be worn a lot on my summer holiday too!
For now, this was my last post as a Blank Slate Patterns Sewing Team member! It was a huge pleasure, thank you all for reading my posts. I hope to see you soon somewhere on the internet! If you’d like to stay in touch with me and the things I make, you can find me at the links below…
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