Bubby and Me - Fusion Boardshorts

I had the pleasure of testing the Fusion board shorts from Bubby and Me. 

The pattern has quite a few variations - 3 different waistband treatments, several pockets, tizz them up with piping, or colour blocking.  Use whatever fabric you like to make them, I've used both board short fabric - available from Bubby and Me on preorder HERE.   

After a slight hiccup with my muslin - my boy child had them on backwards lol!  even though he swore he didn't, everything went smoothly.  All the pattern pieces fitted together, the instructions are nice and clear and it leads you through everything step by step. 

Sizing was spot on my son is 13 1/2 and I made the 13 - he's not particularly tall yet - though he has grown inches in the last couple of months, but everything fitted like it should and I made no alterations to the sizing at all.

The first pair I made from Rose and Hubble Fabric in an Hawaiian print, which was lovely, but after one wear had faded to nearly non-existence :(  I was so very sad about that.  I've never had trouble with fading before despite living in a hot climate and definitely not after 1 wear. 

But onto pair No. 2. 

These ones are a mix of drill - probably slightly heavier than you should use if you are wanting them for swimming, but gosh they make a super nice pair of shorts.   Teamed with a DC Comics Print - ignore that the Avengers and DC are NOT the same - but it appears we don't have a DC Tee - that is being rectified.  

I pieced the leg together.  I am sure there are a gazillion ways to do this.  However, I cut a rectangle roughly the same width/length at the front short piece.   Cut a wide two inch piece of contrast DC fabric and just sliced the drill, inserted the contrast and then topstitched this down.  As you can see my contrast varies in width as it goes up the leg.  I just cut my two inch piece down to achiever this.  I kept roughly the same spacing for the blue drill between the strips. 

The other front leg is straight contrast print.  The back has some piping - sans cord, its actually just  a piece of bias folded in half and ironed and it looks effective.   I also added the back pockets.  Though I probably wouldn't again as my son doesn't really use pockets.  That said, it does add interest to the back of the pants.   

The waist finish was elastic with the eyelets.  The instructions for the eyelets were easy to follow and worked well.  I did have trouble finding elastic and cording, but my Lincraft was a better option than Spotlight - both in terms of cost and variety.  Sadly we have next to none local stores left here in Brisbane anywhere near me. 

The second pair is board short fabric sent to me by the lovely Nikki from Bubby and Me - I have the orange version - OMG the world didn't end …. and they look amazing - those that have followed me know that orange is not a colour I would by choice choose …  but stay tuned. 

I did some judicious juggling of the fabric and came up with this pair of racers.  These have a drawstring waist - and I had to work out how to use that, but I ended up going with the buttonhole waistband option and I did also stitch the elastic down as it wanted to move around ALOT otherwise. 

 

It takes a little patience to do the final step for the leg but the effort is well worth the finished result and I think they look pretty darn good.   I suppose the stamp of approval came from the boy child, who when I went looking for them, expecting them to be tossed in a corner, were actually put into her drawer (okay they were stuffed in there) but if they are in the drawer it means they'll be worn - so WOOT!!!!

So run out - grab some of the board short fabric from Nikki - grab the pattern when its released, it goes from wee little ones up to a size 14 - so there should be plenty of use to come from the pattern. 

Enjoy!