Racing Stripes

I was feeling rather guilty because my youngest son was in desperate need of more swimming shorts.  The pair I made a few months ago were perishing, or should I say perished.  Before we had an embarrassing poolside malfunction, I needed to replace them.  My son had been admiring some of the brightly coloured shorts that were sold at his swim school.  When he enquired about the price, I was shocked to learn that they retailed for $54 each.  Given that he would get maybe 10-15 weeks worth of swimming out of them, I felt it really wasn't good value for money.   I decided to scope out the local fabric shops and after visiting Fabric Vision and Lincraft, I was getting more than a little frustrated.  Finally, I visited Spotlight as a last resort and came across this very bright striped Lycra as well as some black and white check fabric and hi vis orange.  For a $30 spend, I now have enough Lycra to make swimming shorts for the next year.  I still had the original pair I dismantled last year as a pattern and by the end of the day I had one very happy little swimmer!