nine stitches: Esther Shorts

Happy Esther, I mean Easter! Couldn't help myself....I hope you are enjoying your break.

We have visited my in laws who live in a little town on the East Coast of Victoria. Gorgeous wild beaches and plenty of bike riding to be had.

What I particularly love about visiting is that my Father in laws wife loves to sew, mainly quilts but recently has started to get into dress making. She has the most amazing sewing space and lots of bibs and bobs and books to look at for inspiration. I always bring some sewing down when I visit.

Shorts have become my new skirt lately. I love the high waisted vintage styles which you can wear casually, dress up with some heels or even wear over leggin's with some boots for the cooler weather.

Last week I popped into Tessuti Fabrics on a little shopping trip with my youngest son. Check out this pic on Instagram, designer in the making. I just went in to pick up some fabric for a little project I'm working on and walked out with the Esther Pattern and miscellaneous fabrics.

Noah joining in on the shoot.

The Esther pattern is a high waisted modern vintage style short and is super easy to sew. It does have an invisible zipper in the side which is very flattering. Unfortunately, I didn't bring a zipper with me so I had to use a normal dress zipper which I found (thanks Sonia) and sewed a lapped zipper closure instead. Here is a tutorial for a lapped zipper although I just figured it out myself and it turned out quite nice.

I used a fabric I've had in my stash for a few years which was also purchased from Tessuti called Stainglass Garden. It's a digitally printed cotton/elastane piquet. The pattern only requires 70cm so I still have about a meter left which I'm hoping to use for a little wrap skirt. The fabric was gorgeous to work with, a really nice weight.

The pattern itself was simple and easy to follow instructions however the sizing seems a wee bit generous. I cut out an 8 according to my waist size but my hips are smaller than an 8 so I shaved a bit off there. The shorts fit perfectly in the waist but the crotch area seems a bit too big. This could be due to the fact that I used a fabric with some elastane in it. I should have sewn up a toile first but I wanted to get them done while I was on holiday so I just whipped them up without testing first. If I were to sew them again (which I will) I will adjust the crotch area to sit a bit flatter.

A pocket would be nice too. I feel like I need somewhere to place my hand or somewhere to put all the lego that I pick up off the floor everyday.

This pattern is worth purchasing if you love shorts. Easy and quick to sew and fits lovely on the body.

After our little photo shoot (Noah joined in) we headed to one of the wild beaches. It was pretty cold, probably too cold for my new shorts but I had to test drive them. Very comfy is the verdict!