It only took me two years to complete these shorts.  I remember, I cut the pieces during the Sporty Summer Sewathon hosted by Karen Ball from Did you make that? in June 2014.  In my own defence, I did later decide to make the BurdaStyle shorts for the Sewathon, which I blogged about here.

So, the pattern is from the Patrones magasine I bought while on holiday in Mallorca, Spain in 2011. It is the summer issue number 305.

It was also part of the challenge my dear friend Gemma set me in her The ‘Use it Up’ Fabric Challenge. I thought it was a good idea to start with this project since I already had all the pieces cut out. All I had to do was to sew the darn thing.

The fabric was from the famous local Abakhan store (maybe they could give me some more – not that I don’t have enough fabric as it HAHAHA). As Patrones patterns do not have seam allowance I had to add it myself once I laid out the pieces. Also, I decided to make the shorts  a bit longer than the pattern suggested.

As the magazine instructions are sparse and in Spanish, I just checked the first bit that referred to how to construct the front pant , and then gave up doing my own thing afterwards.

The front waist was the most challenging part . This is because it had 3 parts. It took me a while to figure out how to put it together. For a first try it does not look to bad.  (PS: the white line is gone now that I washed them)If I make these trousers again, I will be a bit more careful, so the top stitching continues from the waist band through the pocket or skip the pocket topstitching altogether. I could not figure out what to do with the facing on the inside due to the front panels. In the  end I did not turn them to the inside of the facing, as I would usually do. I just overlocked the whole lot and stitched in the ditch from the front. Who’s going to see the inside if I am wearing them, right?

For the pocket lining I used a plain black fabric that was a scrap piece of fabric from my stash. Also, I overlocked all the raw edges, together on some seams separate on others, depending on whether I needed to press the seam open or not. I sort of made my own way of  doing the cuff on the hem. And then, when it did not stay in place, I decided to do some blind stitching on the right side,which you can see on the wrong side (so not really blind stitch). I find the trousers quite comfy and fun to wear. I was worried that the leg might be a bit tight on my thighs. But due to the extra fabric needed to  do the pleats, they are not tight at all. I like the fit on these trousers that I think I  will make them again but lengthen the leg pieces so that they go down to the floor.I  will also use a fabric with a lot more drape, and possibly skip the cuff and just do a normal hem..

So, here it is the first project from Gemma’s challenge.