6.5.08

Shorts





These close up shots of my butt are for the benefit of those at pattern review...I know that I want to see all the angles of patterns for trouser reviews.

Suzannah and Trinny have said that women over 30 should never wear shorts...but Suzannah and Trinny don't live in the tropics, and shorts are a necessary part of life. I did go through a stage (before I was 30) when I decided that capris were more flattering than shorts, but that was a temporary delusion. Admittedly, at the time, the rains were heavy, my house flooded and capris were certainly better than full length trousers.

So shorts I will do, but they must be the right shorts. I have very few patterns for shorts. Actually only 2. The first is a Knitwit pattern from the 70s. I recently read that Kylie's gold hot pants are insured for 2 million. I guess I could whip her up a pair if she ever wants more.

The other pattern I have is for some Alice & Olivia city shorts...very chic, very sleek, but I suspect that on me they would not look much better than the hot pants. So I decided to modify a trouser pattern. I chose Vogue 2907 (again Alice & Olivia, I am a fan) because I like the wide, below-waist waistband.

I made the following modifications;
  • shortened the length
  • straightened the side seams
  • added cuffs
  • modified the shape of the pocket opening
  • added 2 mock pleats
  • omitted the back welt pockets (but only for this pair, as I did not want to spend a lot of time on my test shorts)
My only problem was a bodgy fabric choice. It seems that my local fabric store has decided to run down their stocks of basics so that they can fit in more polyester print knits. Not a sturdy cotton in sight, so I went to the crafting section. This fabric was on a reduced table and at the time I thought that the print was not too busy and that it would do. I was wrong. It is also a difficult colout to match...with greens I look like part of a forest, with yellow, like a bumble bee. But not all is lost...I now have a great shorts pattern that I am sure I will use many times, when the fabric gods smile upon me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great looking shorts - well done!

Linda L said...

I think the shorts look good!

Colette said...

I really like these shorts. I too like this lower ( not too low ) and wide band.I usually find shorts either too short or too long...these look just right. I will see if I can make a pair up as well as yours - with the same alterations to the Vogue pattern. Thanks for the great tip.