George and Ginger Heat Wave Hot Pants

George and Ginger Heat Wave Hot Pants - pattern review

Disclosure: I received this pattern for free as part of a call for testers of an updated size range; the original Heat Wave Hot Pants pattern was already available. As of July 2020 George and Ginger decided the pattern needed a little more work before it could be released. My size fit in the original size range, however, which goes up to 2XL. I do not have any relationship with the pattern company nor was I asked to write this post. The tester call was open to anyone.

So I was not super sure about this pattern when I saw it on other people. Don't get me wrong it's really cute but these shorts are well, short and that's just not my preference these days. Now in my 20's I wore like .5" inseam shorts but now I wear 3.5" inseam shorts.

Since it was COVID era, I had plenty of time and frankly I needed some shorts, I joined the test anyway! Really, they aren't as short as I thought they'd be! Probably, they look different on different people's bodies or maybe I had seen some where people shortened them?

These were made in a Liverpool fabric from LA Finch Fabrics.

Fitting and directions

I absolutely hate buying shorts. They never fit in my butt. I don't have this problem with jeans but for some reason shorts are always too small in the rear. However, these shorts were perfect! I changed NOTHING.

Ok, ok, I graded the waist to the hip but I do that with every pattern. I don't even think of it as alteration really anymore. And I might make the next pairs, of which there will be many, a little longer but that is easily done.

I made the lower waist band, they are a high-waist style. My waist is fairly short for my height so I don't think I will try the wide waistband version.

The style of pockets on this pattern is a tough one to get to lay flat, mine came out ok but also not perfect. The pattern directions include instructions for inserting elastic to help suck them in and I used elastic but it's still not perfect. It's a little difficult to construct with the elastic pulling the pieces also, but it's worth it for pockets.

I might try changing my pocket shape in the future, I did not do this on my tester pair because that is not the point of a pattern test.

Notice my pocket doesn't lay perfectly flat.

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