I have had the Bubble Shorts PDF pattern by E & E Patterns for a year or more and finally had time to sew up these cute shorts in December. My fabric of choice was Star Wars which I bought also about a year ago from Spotlight Queanbeyan, when my little person was into Lego Movie. The print I have used may still be in the brick and mortar store but they have other prints available now online.
The twirling Frozen princess ballerina faze hit us hard at Christmas, I had done well to avoid all Disney movies, however, Family Day Care took care of that for me in October 2015 much to my horror. My little person now likes to introduce herself as either Princess Anna or Elsa. I made a deal with DD 3.5 if I made her a Frozen dress she MUST wear the Star Wars shorts. DD did hold up her end of the bargain two weeks later, and gee she looked cute. I will try to recreate the look, she chose the top to go with the shorts.
I was working hard to get the patterns to match, but not being retentive about the Storm Troopers being an exact trooper in continuation. I decided to use black thread to top stitch the shorts as white did look a bit weird. If I did it again, possibly a grey thread may have been better, but the white was too stark.
I also wanted the hem cuffs to have the words Star Wars prominent. I changed the pattern instructions and sewed it from the back (right side cuff to wrong side shorts), then pressed the seam allowance and top stitched it on the front to hold it down, this avoided the overlocked seam of the hem cuff band sticking out, or being annoying. If you want instructions on how to do it please message me, it is easy enough.
I also did an adjustable elastic waistband, as my mini me is quite thin. I sewed the elastic into the shorts where the opening was so it would be secure and not move and then sewed the button thru the elastic and shorts material on one side (I recycled the button from a pair of old shorts that were once my husbands, we chucked them years ago). It was much easier than I thought it was going to initially be. I had tried this a few years back with a students skirt at work, but we just didn’t quite get it right, but she was also making an opening skirt and decided to add this detail when we had almost finished!
I did enter the Star Wars shorts in the 2016 Bungendore Show in January. No I did not win a place for these but as I was the only entry in my section I did win the other places as I had entered 2 x Bellydance Costumes, 3 x Active Wear sets, these shorts, and a doll!
How else would I change the pattern…
- I think next time I trace out the shorts I will omit the side seams, as really it is not necessary to have that seam there, the pieces will match really well and it will slightly save on fabric and time.
- I might also investigate creating a turned over waist band instead of the separate waistband facing by extending the pieces at the top, again when tracing. For this I will add my waist band as an extension first, fold it over and then cut it all out.
- I’ve already mentioned the cuff changes and my adjustable elastic, I think I will stick with these.
Stay tuned to the next version with my mentioned modifications to the pattern and I will let you know how I go.
This is a stitch up, or sew it seams. 