Fehr Trade Threshold shorts

Okay, so I don't have the camera charged yet, but I found some phone photos I took when testing Melissa's Threshold shorts.

Now this is another fun pattern from Melissa.  Interesting seaming, lots of pockets, new techniques.  It is even a great one for somebody who wants to sew exercise gear, but is not ready to tackle knits, or negative ease, because it can be made in a woven fabric as well.

When Melissa asked me to test this pattern, I was in the process of moving and living in a hotel.  I did have my daughter's little sewing machine with me, as I thought I might need a few moments of clam for the gaps between settling the kids into schools and looking at houses.  So I can verify that this pattern can be made on the most basic of sewing machines.  I did not have access to my fabric or notions stash, so my personal challenge for this project was to discover the sewing resources available in my new town.

Sadly, there is not a lot available.  There is a local Lincraft, and luckily, specialised fabrics  and notions were not a necessity for this project.  I found pink FOE and a lovely inch wide lingerie elastic and I was drawn to the colours in this stretch woven dress fabric.  The shop assistant asked what I was making, and I was a little embarrassed to admit that I was making exercise clothing with this fabric and not a glamorous dress.  Though, the sheen washed out of the fabric in the pre-wash, so I would have been disappointed if I did buy it for a dress.  The colours are awesome though, and it matches most of my running tops.

Here are a couple of photos of me testing the position of the elastic. I need to either reduce the front rise or raise the back rise for Melissa's patterns, though this is a fairly typical pattern alteration for me.  In spite of testing the elastic, I did not pull it tight enough...it seems in all my exercise clothing the elastic is either too tight or too loose...still need more experience to get this right.

In this side view, you can see the interesting front pockets and seaming.  I would have liked the front pockets to be a little deeper, and I believe that Melissa has added instructions to do this in her final version of the pattern.

You can't really see the seaming on the back, because of the print.

I lived out of a small suitcase for about 6 weeks, and am surprised at how thoroughly bored of those clothes I got....so these shorts were a welcome addition.  I wore them running, but also just as regular shorts, as beach shorts, as moving furniture shorts.  I will definitely be making more of these.

I also tested the runderwear, but as a stand alone item rather than attached to the shorts, as I knew I would have issues with the rise of the shorts.  I did send photos of me in the runderwear to Melissa but will not be posting them here!  I just wanted to say that the runderwear is a useful addition to the pattern, even if you don't want to attach them to the shorts.