Shorts...

I'm a big subscriber to the idea of enjoying the learning process. With sewing, this means relishing in some horrendous failures before slicing them up and arriving at a much better solution. This has applied recently (loose definition of recently) to my sewing of summer shorts.

Let's take a look at the first pair:

Uuuuh, I guess they look okay...

Wait, what?

Oh.

Bahahahahaha

After a previous post about deliberate pattern cutting, I totally messed up these shorts. The check is a very solid Alsatian Kelsch (linen) and the blue is the spongy linen from the Boomerang Dress. Bad cutting plan and with a lot of messing up. But hey...it's a new pattern and it looks like it fits. Surely that's good...

From this abomination, I immediately restarted the project, cut new fabric (actually leftovers from the Pinch Me Bag) and arrived at these:

Full length

Rolled up with cuffs

 Big hooray, the shorts feature an invisible zip in the side seam and flat felled seams throughout. I don't think I used an iron at all to press out seams, the fabric reacted really well to just being pressed out by hand. Definitely a surprise! But what's the bit I really love about these shorts?

Hint...

 Pockets! Actual welt pockets!

You know that odd feeling of victory where you've tried out a new skill or technique successfully? That's pretty amazing, but when it happens at 1.30am immediately after a failed project and many hours going loopy in front of the machine...well it has the potential to lead to a full-on meltdown. Trust me, when I finished these pockets and tried them out for the first time, I lost my mind. It looked a bit like this:

Just for proof's sake, you can see the pocket bags and facing. The Kelsch is a great facing because it doesn't stretch or give too much. Hopefully there's enough to be used as other facings!

If you're wondering why I'm even posting this now when we're well into November, it's largely because these shorts have been a gateway into a whole host of other projects since. They have have been a nice little milestone in the learning journey. Hopefully more to follow soon, I have bags of cool stuff to show you!