5oo4 Kids' Swim Trunks

I signed up to promote 5oo4's Kids' Swim Trunks, because I knew my kiddos would be needing some new shorts for water-play this summer (not yet sure if we'll actually be able to use them at the pool or not, but as you can see, they are super-fun at the local creek!) When this fabric arrived from knitfabric.com, it turned out it was very polarizing fabric. The three younger kids loved it and all needed shorts from it, and the three older kids all said, "No thanks, Mom. I'd rather have solid colored fabric." But it ended up being perfect since I just had one yard of this awesome board short fabric :) (I have enough left for a pocket on some solid shorts if the big kids change their minds...)

Anyway, about the pattern. I knew I was going to like this one, because I have made the men's swim trunks for my bigger boys before, and they loved it. And this time I decided to try out all the options!! None of my kids fit into exact sizes. My daughter is a size 2 waist, 3 hips, and 5 height in 5oo4. My younger son is a 3 waist/hips and 5 height. And my older son is a size 5 waist/hips and 7 height. So I mostly graded between those sizes, except I knew that I wanted the boys to have a little growing room, so I sized up a size on the width for theirs, figuring they'll be a little shorter at the end of the summer/next year, but they should still fit. For my daughter, I made a size 3 width, 4 height, figuring that I wanted the girl version to look a little slimmer (more true-to-size).

The pattern has two lengths for each size, and I made the shorter length for my daughter. I didn't have quite enough of the dino fabric for her shorts, so I color-blocked the back pattern piece with a stripe of solid teal. I didn't change the front at all, because she wanted inseam pockets for her hands to go into, and colorblocking the front would have messed that up. (FYI, I sewed the teal strip onto the short backs first thing, double checked it against the pattern piece, and then proceeded with the pattern as written). The most fiddly part of this pair of shorts was the pocket, but the instructions were great, and it was fine as long as I went slowly. Something great about this pattern is that it has you stitch the pocket to the front leg so it doesn't float out into the water when you are swimming. I really appreciate these instructions, as my bigger kids have had issues with floating pockets in the past )

The pattern has two pocket options: the inseam pockets and the cargo pockets with a flap. Both the boys chose to have a cargo pocket (I told them they could just have one, because it's a little bit of work, and I didn't want to do it twice for each pair of shorts). I followed the pattern suggestion to put grommets in at the bottom of the cargo pockets, and I think it gives it a real professional touch, in addition to allowing the water to flow out when they swim. Both the boys' shorts have the typical swim liner, and I thought the instructions in the pattern for that were great (although, when it says "right sides together," that's what it actually means...ask me how I know!)

5oo4's Kids Swim Trunks will be great shorts to wear this summer, both at the creek, and eventually in the pool!

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