Posted in a seriously timey-wimey fashion, because even though I wrote this in May, it took me forever to get pictures of the shorts. This is a ridiculously long post, but there is a handy tip for fixing zippers at the end.
It's spring, finally! The cherry blossoms outside Robarts Library have taken their sweet time about blooming, the temperature is finally going into the double digits on a regular basis, and... do you see where this is going?
At long last, I have finished and am blogging the Sewaholic Thurlow trousers and shorts. I made the shorts last May and had the trousers mostly done last June, but there were some fitting issues that made me hang them up on the bookcase of shame until I finally sorted them out for this year's Me-Made May.
The shorts were intended to be a wearable muslin/toile, because I don't usually wear shorts; I used some of that fabric I bought on Portobello Road summer that I had no clue what to do with -- yay for muslins and using up weird fabric! I still have a tonne of it left -- I did buy 3 m after all. The lining is what I can only believe is pillowcase fabric I got in Aberfoyle.
My first thought was the fit was mostly amazing without having to make too many adjustments. I wanted to take this pattern out to dinner, the shorts fit so well out of the box. I didn't even have to shorten the front rise! They needed just a bit tweaking in the behind to make them perfect. And thank you to Lladybird for holding my hand through the challenging bits. Seriously. That sew-along is the best.
My First Welt Pockets! Hmmm. Probably should have cut those on the bias. But whatever. Pocketses! Lauren's instruction were so clear, I didn't even practice first.
Muslin or not, I did spend a bit of time matching the plaid before cutting, particularly on the front pockets - even cut each one separately. I did a mostly good job, although when I went to cut out the back pieces, the bottom of the folded fabric must have shifted slightly before I pinned the pattern because one side is just ever so slightly off. Lesson learned: cut out each piece separately. I even tried to line the vertical stripes up so I would get solid, striped, solid at the seams. It worked well on one side, less well on the other.
Let's get back to matching that worked: I didn't even try to do any matching with the waistband because it curves and I'm too lazy, but lookie what happened!
Behold, serendipitous waistband matching!
Which makes up for the fact that the waistband on the shorts was a bit of a nightmare to put together. First of all, I didn't pay attention and wound up interfacing the wrong side of the right waistband and lining -- or at least so I thought, until I had sewn and trimmed the left-hand band and discovered that it was the one that needed to be unpicked and de-interfaced. I think there are mistakes in the waistband pattern layout (upside down) and also in the left waistband pattern itself; it's about an inch too short. I thought it was me, but a comment on Lauren's post made me realize I wasn't crazy. I just folded the fly extension under on the shorts and extended the left waistband pattern when I made the trousers.
I finished them in time to wear them for the last day of last year's MMM (although I was still finding pins as I was biking around, which is a rather painful way of finding pins I must say). I wound up living in these shorts practically all last summmer. So much for me not being a shorts person.
I made the trousers in a light grey linen, lined in light grey cotton. I prefer a closer-fitting trouser, so I cut a size 0 according to the finished measurements. The rear view of the shorts originally looked like my butt was trying to eat them, and no I am not posting that picture thankyouverymuch. I just sewed a narrower seam allowance on the shorts, but to get rid of the problem I cut the crotch at size 6 on the back trousers. And here is where I ran into major difficulties and started feeling that maybe this pattern didn't deserve dinner after all because the trousers' crotch and leg (front and back) are drafted very differently from the shorts. As in, several sizes differently. A fact I did not notice until I had the trousers mostly constructed and wound up giving myself a wedgie. I'm not used to needing more rise, but wow, was it ever not pretty. I needed to go to a size 6 in the front as well, just to match the shorts. Also, the thighs are drafted to be narrower (which makes sense, but that was unexpected). Fixing the crotch would involve sewing some very tiny seams, if not a gusset. As you know, I'm not a fan of unpicking and frustration and that's why the trousers didn't get finished for a year. But I had already given away the pair of grey trousers these were meant to replace, so I had to get them finished in time for this year's spring, should it ever arrive.
Rear view, which isn't as scary as it could have been. I've since let the sides out just a wee bit more at the outer hips to lose those horizontal drag lines. I'd like to take the waist in more at the back, but I'm worried that will pull the rear pockets too close together; by the way, I should also mention that I deepened the rear pockets by an inch because I do like to use my rear pockets sometimes.
I waffled about putting the belt loops on, but I really like the clean look without.
So, lesson learned. Don't use the shorts as a muslin for the trousers unless you lay the patterns on top of each other to make sure the crotches line up. But after all that, I do quite like these trousers and the pattern, in a let's-get-some-coffee kind of way. I'm hoping the next go-round will takes us to at least lunch.
By the way, if you get this far, should you ever wind up pulling the pull off your zipper, there is a solution. For the shorts I reused a zipper from a pair of trousers that I loved but were being eating alive by moths. The zipper didn't have stops at the top, and I was so very careful not to zip it up too far... until I did, pulling the zipper pull right off. Naturally, that was right after I had completed tacking the facing to the lining. Argh. Fortunately, this tutorial helped. It helped again when I did the exact same thing with my refashioned faux peau de soie skirt. I am becoming somewhat of an expert in reattaching zipper pulls. Think it will work on boots?
It's spring, finally! The cherry blossoms outside Robarts Library have taken their sweet time about blooming, the temperature is finally going into the double digits on a regular basis, and... do you see where this is going?
At long last, I have finished and am blogging the Sewaholic Thurlow trousers and shorts. I made the shorts last May and had the trousers mostly done last June, but there were some fitting issues that made me hang them up on the bookcase of shame until I finally sorted them out for this year's Me-Made May.
The shorts were intended to be a wearable muslin/toile, because I don't usually wear shorts; I used some of that fabric I bought on Portobello Road summer that I had no clue what to do with -- yay for muslins and using up weird fabric! I still have a tonne of it left -- I did buy 3 m after all. The lining is what I can only believe is pillowcase fabric I got in Aberfoyle.
My first thought was the fit was mostly amazing without having to make too many adjustments. I wanted to take this pattern out to dinner, the shorts fit so well out of the box. I didn't even have to shorten the front rise! They needed just a bit tweaking in the behind to make them perfect. And thank you to Lladybird for holding my hand through the challenging bits. Seriously. That sew-along is the best.
My First Welt Pockets! Hmmm. Probably should have cut those on the bias. But whatever. Pocketses! Lauren's instruction were so clear, I didn't even practice first.
Muslin or not, I did spend a bit of time matching the plaid before cutting, particularly on the front pockets - even cut each one separately. I did a mostly good job, although when I went to cut out the back pieces, the bottom of the folded fabric must have shifted slightly before I pinned the pattern because one side is just ever so slightly off. Lesson learned: cut out each piece separately. I even tried to line the vertical stripes up so I would get solid, striped, solid at the seams. It worked well on one side, less well on the other.
Let's get back to matching that worked: I didn't even try to do any matching with the waistband because it curves and I'm too lazy, but lookie what happened!
Behold, serendipitous waistband matching!
Which makes up for the fact that the waistband on the shorts was a bit of a nightmare to put together. First of all, I didn't pay attention and wound up interfacing the wrong side of the right waistband and lining -- or at least so I thought, until I had sewn and trimmed the left-hand band and discovered that it was the one that needed to be unpicked and de-interfaced. I think there are mistakes in the waistband pattern layout (upside down) and also in the left waistband pattern itself; it's about an inch too short. I thought it was me, but a comment on Lauren's post made me realize I wasn't crazy. I just folded the fly extension under on the shorts and extended the left waistband pattern when I made the trousers.
I finished them in time to wear them for the last day of last year's MMM (although I was still finding pins as I was biking around, which is a rather painful way of finding pins I must say). I wound up living in these shorts practically all last summmer. So much for me not being a shorts person.
I made the trousers in a light grey linen, lined in light grey cotton. I prefer a closer-fitting trouser, so I cut a size 0 according to the finished measurements. The rear view of the shorts originally looked like my butt was trying to eat them, and no I am not posting that picture thankyouverymuch. I just sewed a narrower seam allowance on the shorts, but to get rid of the problem I cut the crotch at size 6 on the back trousers. And here is where I ran into major difficulties and started feeling that maybe this pattern didn't deserve dinner after all because the trousers' crotch and leg (front and back) are drafted very differently from the shorts. As in, several sizes differently. A fact I did not notice until I had the trousers mostly constructed and wound up giving myself a wedgie. I'm not used to needing more rise, but wow, was it ever not pretty. I needed to go to a size 6 in the front as well, just to match the shorts. Also, the thighs are drafted to be narrower (which makes sense, but that was unexpected). Fixing the crotch would involve sewing some very tiny seams, if not a gusset. As you know, I'm not a fan of unpicking and frustration and that's why the trousers didn't get finished for a year. But I had already given away the pair of grey trousers these were meant to replace, so I had to get them finished in time for this year's spring, should it ever arrive.
Rear view, which isn't as scary as it could have been. I've since let the sides out just a wee bit more at the outer hips to lose those horizontal drag lines. I'd like to take the waist in more at the back, but I'm worried that will pull the rear pockets too close together; by the way, I should also mention that I deepened the rear pockets by an inch because I do like to use my rear pockets sometimes.
I waffled about putting the belt loops on, but I really like the clean look without.
So, lesson learned. Don't use the shorts as a muslin for the trousers unless you lay the patterns on top of each other to make sure the crotches line up. But after all that, I do quite like these trousers and the pattern, in a let's-get-some-coffee kind of way. I'm hoping the next go-round will takes us to at least lunch.
By the way, if you get this far, should you ever wind up pulling the pull off your zipper, there is a solution. For the shorts I reused a zipper from a pair of trousers that I loved but were being eating alive by moths. The zipper didn't have stops at the top, and I was so very careful not to zip it up too far... until I did, pulling the zipper pull right off. Naturally, that was right after I had completed tacking the facing to the lining. Argh. Fortunately, this tutorial helped. It helped again when I did the exact same thing with my refashioned faux peau de soie skirt. I am becoming somewhat of an expert in reattaching zipper pulls. Think it will work on boots?
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