Purple Ladybird Prefontaines

I am jumping for joy excited to be joining the ‘Prefontaine World Tour’ today. Jill from That Moxie Girl recently released her first pdf pattern – The Prefontaine Shorts – and what an opening. I absolutely love this 70s running shorts style and admired from afar when lots of tester versions started popping up, so I was very happy to get my hands on a copy. I immediately ordered half a yard of this amazing purple ladybird print from Miss Matabi and exercised extreme will power by not adding anything else to my cart. It is from the Stamped collection by Ellen Luckett Baker for Kokka. Casper’s favourite colour is purple so I had a feeling he’d like these. In fact he loves them and declared them his favourite shorts. I think they’re big enough that he will be able to wear them next summer as well, as long as he doesn’t grow too much.

These shorts are so cute and the pattern covers from 18 months up to 8 years. You can buy the pattern here. They look great in solid colours as well, don’t use a lot of fabric and are perfect for active little ones.

I made a few small changes when I made mine…

• adjusted the pattern pieces to use size 3 width but size 4 length for my tall skinny boy
• used regular bought bias tape instead of an old T-shirt or knit fabric
• topstitched the back of the bias tape in place instead of stitching in the ditch as I like the look
• added an extra pocket facing so there are two pocket pieces joined to each other rather than one that is sewn together with the front leg piece. The purple fabric is an echino linen / cotton blend
• made the back pocket about 1cm longer

I found it really helped to use Wondertape when sewing the front and back of each leg together. I used one strip to keep the back of the bias tape in place and the other to join the leg pieces. This meant I could sew the back of the bias tape down for that section at the same time as sewing the legs together.

So what are you waiting for? Go and get the pattern!

I’m only second in the tour after fellow UK blogger Stephanie, who made a beautiful embroidered pair. There’s sure to be lots of amazing versions to come so don’t forget to check out the full line up…

Monday, July 29 The Crafty Kitty
Tuesday, July 30 Craftstorming
Wednesday, July 31 Kitschy Coo
Thursday, August 1 Emmyloubeedoo
Friday, August 2 imagine gnats

Monday, August 5 Petit a Petit & Sew Delicious
Tuesday, August 6 Buzzmills
Wednesday, August 7 The Southern Institute
Thursday, August 8 Sew Jereli & Max California
Friday, August 9 Sew Chibi & Living with Punks