Sewing the Maritime Shorts – Pattern review

Summer has almost arrived, Yay! Time to start sewing pretty shorts and dresses. Well, maybe in the rest of Australia except Melbourne. It’s been unusually cold here this spring and the thought of wearing dresses and shorts is the furtherest thing from my mind. Luckily we’ve had one hot day and I got to wear these Maritime shorts that I made (in anticipation of a hot summer) bowling. 

The Maritime shorts pattern by Grainline Studio took my eye as it looks like a nice basic style that you could pair up with a lot of different top styles. Tank tops, tees and blouses would look great with them. They also looked like a pretty simple make with a zip fly, pockets and hook and eye closure waistband. I made them up in a lightweight black/navy denim with a contrast fabric for the pocket bags.

When I made the Maritime shorts I found a few of the instructions a little confusing , in particular the pockets and fly. With the pockets the illustrations and description are a little unclear. With the fly, I’m not sure about the zipper insertion. The pattern asks for a zipper that is too long and the illustration shows a zipper that is too long for the fly but then asks you to trim it off. Why not just insert a zipper the correct size? Confused…

The shorts are very very short! I would recommend lengthening a little if you don’t want too much leg showing. I don’t mind showing off a bit of leg so they were fine for me. I also think I could have made them a size up. I did take my measurements and pick the size accordingly so perhaps the denim doesn’t really have enough give for this pattern but I would recommend going up a size and sew a muslin first.

In conclusion, the final look of the shorts are nice but I found the pattern instructions a little unclear. Not ideal for a beginner due to this reason but good for a seasoned sewer who doesn’t need a lot of instructions. Also a good fit around the hips and waist.  I also  have a nice pair of short shorts to go barefoot bowling (and drinking beer) in!

Please excuse my cycling tan lines!

Contrast pocket linings.