A while ago, I was trying out some freezer paper stenciling and ended up with this fun triangle print. My daughter found the stenciled fabric, loved it, and asked me to make her a pair of shorts with it.
Yes, ma'am, your wish is my command!
So I created yet another pair of side-panel shorts. I love this pattern; it is so versatile and lends itself for endless variations: use bold contrasting fabric for the side panels (as in these puffin shorts) or a more subtle combination (last year's pineapple shorts), add piping, do something different on each leg (I made a pair of stars and stripes shorts that I never blogged), or anything you can think of.
I used a self-drafted pattern, but you could easily modify an existing pattern: cut off a rectangle from the front and back panel and add these two rectangles together to form the side panel (see instructions below). The side panels of these shorts (size 5-7) were 12 cm wide.
Once you've cut out the panels, just sew the shorts together as you would normally do, just make two extra seams, and ad piping if you like.
