Polka Dot Shorts are the Best Shorts

I’ve been pondering shorts for a while, and I made a point of finishing a pair in time for our trip to Florida. The second half of our trip was much too cold for bare legs, but I did get a little use out of them:

Unfortunately, that will be the only modeled shot of this project. I was hoping to take some photos in sunny Florida, but I was too busy having fun. Now that I’m back in Pittsburgh, my sunless tan has faded and there’s snow on the ground. Such a bummer.
For the pattern, I used Grainline’s Martime Shorts, and they fit me straight out of the (digital) envelope! The pattern and instructions are well done, as I’ve come to expect from Jennifer, and I think the style is perfect for a casual, go anywhere kind of short.
I don’t know when I got it in my head that these shorts needed to be black with white polka dots, but once I had decided on that pattern, I couldn’t let it go! I had a hard time finding fabric that would work and ended up with a stretchy, denim-ish fabric from fabric.com. It wasn’t always the easiest fabric to work with, but it gave me exactly the look I was going for: these patterned shorts are fun but still quite versatile.
Thanks to the black fabric, I can’t get very good detail shots, which is a shame because the fly front went pretty well. But here, at least you can see my pocket lining: a quilting cotton with even tinier white polka dots on a black background. I had just enough scrap fabric in my stash to pull these off, and I couldn’t help myself!

Happily, these shorts coincide with the Sewcialists’ Polka Dot January. If I had my way, my wardrobe would be made up entirely of polka dot garments, so I’m having fun seeing what everyone else makes for the theme.

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