Gemma 
Welcome to the fifth instalment of my Project Knitwear series, where I am documenting my attempts at knitting my own clothes! You can find the previous posts in this series here– so far, I’ve made two tops and two pairs of socks, but today, I’m tackling shorts.
I previously made the Flutter Buttshirt by Jessie Maed Designs, which forms one half of the Flutter Buttset. Today’s post is all about the other half of that set: the Flutter Buttshorts. I ran into a few problems making these (as you’ll soon see), so, in the end, my shorts ended up being a weird amalgamation of two different patterns (the other being the Sporty Knit Skort by Florence Miller). Because of this, I’m calling them my Adapted Flutterbutt Shorts.
For the sake of full disclosure, I made these shorts quite a while ago- before I made the Snowy Nights Socks from Project Knitwear #3! However, it was the end of autumn by the time I finished knitting them, so it was much too cold to take photos in them. On the bright side, I only just finished them off by sewing in all the ends and adding the elastic, so I guess the timeline isn’t totally inaccurate.
Table of Contents
The Yarn
I usually start these Project Knitwear posts with my notes on the pattern, but I’m starting this one by talking about the yarn I used. That’s because the yarn played an important role in my struggles with the pattern, so I think it’s important to explain what yarn I used first!
Because the shorts are part of a matching set, I used the same yarn for them as I used for my Flutterbutt Shirt (the other part of the set): Scheepjes Bamboo Soft, in the shade 254 Mighty Spruce. It’s a 4-ply, 50% rayon (from bamboo)/50% cotton blend. The original pattern suggests going down a size if you’re using a cotton blend yarn, to account for the lack of memory in the fibre, so I followed that suggestion with this yarn. It’s a very smooth, silky yarn that makes a really drape-y fabric (which I really like, but it did cause some problems for me with this particular make). As I mentioned on my Flutterbutt Shirt post, it is a little splitty and there were a number of knots in the balls, which was a bit sad.
Knitted on the suggested needle size (5mm), my gauge was slightly tighter than the one listed in the original pattern. However, as with my Flutterbutt Shirt, I wasn’t too worried about that, because the suggested gauge is INSANELY loose. I mean… who wants see-through shorts? Definitely not me. Can confirm: the finished Flutterbutt Shorts (my first attempt), made on 5mm needles were super see-through. Not the vibe. The yarn was much better knit on 3.5mm needles, as with my second attempt.
The Pattern
As I mentioned in the introduction, I ran into some issues when I first made these shorts. I started out by following the original Flutter Buttshorts pattern by Jessie Maed Designs and everything was going perfectly- the pattern was super easy to follow and super simple to knit up- the pattern doesn’t include any short row shaping or anything (I assume because the shorts are meant to be drapey and, well, fluttery?). I made the shorts in the medium size (the third smallest- this is important for later!), which was a size smaller than my actual measurements, to account for the lack of memory in my bamboo/cotton blend yarn (this was suggested in the pattern).
Anyway, I made the shorts and… they were huge. Like, massive (mainly in terms of width, not so much length). I used the same needle size (5mm) as my Flutter Buttshirt, and my gauge was actually a little tighter than the one listed in the pattern, so, if anything, they should have been a little on the small side, right? No, no. They were HUGE.
I do wonder if the shorts are meant to be on the bigger side, so they can be pulled in via the drawstring, to give them more shape? Unfortunately, as I mentioned, my yarn was pretty silky, so the drawstring wasn’t really cut out for that task- it just slipped out of whatever position I tied it into! The pattern does say you can use any kind of cotton/silk blend (admittedly, there’s no mention of bamboo- maybe that’s where I went wrong?), though… Also, much like with my Flutter Buttshirt, even my tighter gauge was insanely loose and see-through- which I could just about make work for the top, but is definitely not what I wanted for shorts.
Long story short(s), my Flutterbutt Shorts were… unwearable. I had to frog the whole thing 🙁 . Initially, I planned to remake them in the XS size, but I was feeling pretty unconfident about that- I mean, what if that was too big as well? There’s nowhere to go from XS- it’s the smallest size the pattern lists. In the end, my mum suggested that I use a different pattern for the shorts and simply added the ‘flutter’, using the technique from the original pattern myself. Last year, my mum made me a Sporty Knit Skort (from a pattern by Florence Miller), and it fit pretty well, so I decided to follow her advice and make just the shorts from that pattern, then add the ‘flutter’ on.
I made the shorts in the size D, which is a size down from my measurements, just to make the shorts a little more fitted/account for the lack of memory in my yarn. I found this pattern much more successful in terms of fit/opacity (I used the suggested 3.5mm needles and it worked much better for my yarn- the finished shorts are much less see-through)! They were a little more complicated to make, because they do make use of short row shaping, but it wasn’t anything too difficult and the finished product was definitely worth it! I also scrapped the drawstring, because I just didn’t feel that my yarn would work with that technique, and opted to create a thicker, elastic waistband instead, as the Sporty Knit Skort pattern uses.
The Knitting Process
With the Sporty Knit Skort, the skirt part of the skort is knitted first, directly after the waistband, then the waistband stitches are picked up underneath the skirt, and the shorts are then knitted. For the waistband/skirt, you cast on 8 stitches more than the number you will eventually pick up for the shorts. Because I wasn’t making the skirt/picking up the stitches, I just cast on the number of stitches needed for the shorts from the get-go, and made the waistband with that stitch count instead. It worked perfectly!
While I haven’t made an elasticated waistband like this before, I did do a similar folded edge in my first Project Knitwear undertaking: the Daphne Top. With that project, you had to seam the folded-up hem afterwards, using a darning needle, but with this pattern you simply knitted the two edges together as you go, which made the process much more enjoyable- it’s basically the exact same technique that I used for the folded hems on my last pair of socks! I did, however, leave a small opening in the join so that I could a) insert the waistband after I made the shorts (I was away from home when I made these, so I didn’t have the elastic with me) and b) adjust the elastic at a later date if needed. The original pattern calls for knitting the two edges together over the loop of elastic, so that it is completely incased. This gives a more professional, finished look, but it does mean you can’t adjust it later if you need to. For the indecisive, anxious people out there (like me), leaving a little gap in the seam is a good alternative!
From there, I knit the shorts according to the pattern, until I reached the ribbed edge at the bottom. I replaced the ribbing with the ‘flutter’ technique from the original pattern, to make these into my Adapted Flutterbutt Shorts. Adding the ‘flutter’ at the bottom of the shorts was super easy- the technique itself is really simple and doesn’t require a specific stitch count, so applying it to the new pattern was very straightforward. As with my Flutter Buttshirt, I opted to use this Stretchy Bind-Off (k1, k2tog tbl) for casting off the ruffled hems, because it didn’t pull the the ruffles too tight, but still looked pretty.
New Techniques
There weren’t too many new techniques for me in this pattern, but I did manage to practise some techniques that I have already met (previously encountered techniques are marked with an *):
- Long tail cast on*
- German short rows*
- Stretchy Bind-Off*
- Folded waistband
- Combining patterns
Final Thoughts
These shorts were a bit of a labour of love (mainly because I ended up making two whole pairs of shorts in the process…). The first attempt was very disappointing and a little disheartening, but the second attempt was much more successful and made the whole saga worthwhile. I think the shorts I’ve ended up with are very wearable, pretty and match my Flutter Buttshirt perfectly, so I’m very excited to wear the whole ensemble and get that I’m-wearing-a-matching-set-so-obviously-my-life-is-super-together feeling.
Also, while these shorts are, well… short, I feel like there was a deceptive amount of knitting in them? I had grand plans to knit a pair of lounge trousers for the colder months, but now I’m thinking maybe that would kill me…
Anyway, now I’ve knitted my first ever pair of shorts! While the process wasn’t exactly painless, knitting shorts isn’t as complicated as I expected it to be. I don’t know if I’ll be making another pair any time soon, but it’s nice to know that I can, if I ever do want to!
If you're interested... You can purchase the Flutter Buttshort pattern by Jessie Maed Designs here. You can purchase the Sporty Knit Skort pattern by Florence Miller here. You can find the project page on Ravelry for my Adapted Flutterbutt Shorts here.
Gemma
xxx
