Finally, it’s become warm enough to be able to wear boardshorts around here. For me, I love to wear men’s boardshorts since the women’s versions are too short for me.

My favorite pair!
My fricken favorite pair right now is these Quiksilver Editions I picked up from the local outlet store. The downside is, it had all sorts of stiff Velcro in the fly and on the side pocket. Blech. I hate Velcro on boardshorts- it snags in the wash and it pokes me in the stomach when I’m paddling. So, I decided to give these shorts a bit of a makeover.
Upon closer inspection, you can see what I can’t stand: Velcro in the crotch!
I used a seam ripper to remove the Velcro- the majority was pretty easy, until I got to the very bottom where the fly came together.
I could have just cut straight across he bottom and left the rest of the Velcro encased in the stitching in the fly.
Instead, I removed the anchor stitching on the front of the fly and took out ALL of the Velcro.
I’m removing the stitches.
Tough job, but worth it.
Next, I tackled the Velcro on the pocket. You can even see where the inner pocket is snagged on the Velcro!
For shame!
I had a thought at this point- for those who are new to seam rippers, here’s a few tips:
When I start to remove the Velcro, I start on the Velcro side and use the sharp point to find the stitch to break it. Be careful not to stab the fabric:
I’m starting on the outside track of stitching first.
Once that stitch is broken, you should be able to start to separate the Velcro from the fabric. At this point, I took my seam ripper (with the ball tip side down) into the seam and moved the ripper forward along the seam between the Velcro and the fabric:
With the ball tip down in the seam, this prevents any snags in the fabric. All that nice fluid fabric is finally free to move!
Ok- now, yeah, the Velcro issue is solved, but, the fly is open.
Yikes.
On some of my other fancy boardshorts, there’s a nice solution I’ve found to take care of that, and I already have the materials here to recycle. Stay tuned for Part II!
Don’t get me wrong….there’s always great uses for Velcro.

On the Bucket List