Birdie shorts

Even in a world where "Birdie Sanders" is a thing, for me, the word "birdie" will always conjure up the feeling of sheer embarrassment I had during my (poor) performance of my one-line solo in the middle school production of "Bye Bye Birdie".  Isn't it funny that such a seemingly benign word can have terrible connotations for someone!  Unfortunately, there really isn't anything else to name these shorts--Audubon shorts?  Lab of O shorts?  (Any other Cornell alums out there? :)

Maybe there is a bit of the same embarrassment in these shorts as the name suggests to my heart.  I was super excited about this fabric (stretch cotton twill, from Mood), and this project got bumped to the top of the list because I was so in love with the idea of shorts with birds on them.  Now that I'm wearing them, I feel a little bit like I'm wearing the inside of a sleeping bag from the 70s.  Remember those woodland duck prints?  (Go ahead and Google "vintage coleman duck sleeping bag").  Hmm....

Aside from the questionable taste level, the fabric was amazing to sew and wear.  Stretch cotton is so lovely.  The pattern is the Maritime Shorts by Grainline.  Definitely a tried&true pattern for me after making the anchors away version last year.

I pattern-matched the birds only at the front pockets, above (where it was easy, in other words).

The only significant change I made this time around was to sew in some functional back welt pockets (using my tutorial, here).  The fabric seemed more refined, and therefore suited a more formal pocket in the back (yes, I'm still referring to fabric with birds on it--the substrate was refined, not the print!). All attempts to pattern-match the welts were utter failures, so I ended up just trying to avoid birds entirely for the visible welt.

Between the awesome sewing pattern and stretchy cotton fabric, these shorts are wonderfully comfortable and fairly flattering.  Now I have to find/make more tops to wear with them!