Say hello to my favourite sewing project from this summer — shorts! I drafted my own pattern and made a few muslins to get the fit right, so I’ve now got a good block that I plan to use to make some trousers. I wanted a high-waisted style and to get a good balance between slouchy and fitted. The other thing I’m happy about with these shorts is that the fabric comes from a vintage skirt bought at a ‘brocante’ so no new fabric was required, and I was even able to recycle the zip from the skirt. All in all I had a lot of fun working on these shorts as they were something I really needed (for the crazy hot weather), I got to play around with fit, learn new construction methods, and refashion something old.
I had so much fun in fact, I made a second pair (see below)! From leftover chambray from my Archer shirt from years ago — bought in Leuven in a fabric shop called Pauli Stoffen. It felt good to finally use up the rest of that fabric!
Now autumn is on the way (yes!) I’ll be wearing both pairs (not at the same time) over tights and leggings.
The other thing I want to mention about the making of these shorts is that I followed this brilliant tutorial from Closet Case Patterns for the Jenny shorts pattern religiously when it came to construction order for the zip and pockets. I just love the way the method has the lapped zipper integrated into the pockets. Seriously, bookmark that tutorial.
Before: a vintage skirt that was way too small for me.
Close up of Heather’s brilliant construction method, and my slightly shoogly sewing 🙂
The second pair!
More lapped zipper swooning…
