Grey Shorts

A small additional project for myself, out of remnants of the grey fabric.

Almost every summer I make a pair of shorts, I've already made three pairs, using Burda pattern 118 06/2021. However this summer even these shorts felt too long and warm for me, so I made a lighter and shorter pair. The pattern is another Burda pattern I've used before, but modified probably beyond recognition.

I made this pair in 2021 for Gaby, using a beautiful scuba fabric. The original features front welt pockets, but I wanted different types of pockets. I drafted the pockets myself and then cut the pattern and added four pleats, to add some volume and interest to the pockets.

As my shorts are made out of knit fabric, I completely skipped the fly front zipper and the back darts - I simply added a wasteband with an inserted elastic and also a tie, mostly to break the grey monotony.

Pattern: Burda #122 02/2011

Size: 36, modified

Fabric: polycotton knit

Time to make: 2 days

I also reduced the size of the shorts from 36 to 34 and shortened the crotch length by 3 cm. If i ever make these again, I should deepen the pockets and reduce the crotch length by 2 cm at the front and at the back, for even better fit.

Anyway, these were a quick and fun project and a practical use of fabric leftovers, so I'm pretty happy with them. I was thinking of adding some embroidery or doing some drawings with a textile marker, but in the end decided not to bother and left them plain.

Brick Shorts for Gaby

This is the second item I made for Gaby  - a pair of shorts for the summer in a beautiful brick color (which is somewhat lost on these photos). They go perfectly with the Rhapsody blouse, as well as many other summer blouses I've made for her over the years. I hope they'll get a lot of wear this summer, as she had mentioned that she needed such shorts for the hot days in Vienna.

The pattern is again a Burda pattern, which is designed as paperbag shorts, but I cut the part above the waist and chose to add a simple waistband and belt loops. The pattern also features cuffs, but my piece of fabric was very limited, so I made the shorts as long as possible, but without the cuffs. I actually think that the cuffs might have made them less elegant, so if I ever repeat the pattern, I'm not sure I'll be adding them anyway.

Pattern: Burda 104 02/2017

Size: 36, modified

Fabric: cotton/polyester twill, 60-70 cm remnant piece 

Time to make: one week

The most complicated part of the pants for me was again the fly front zipper. I followed this Russian video tutorial and I heartily recommend it. Maybe one day I'll learn to insert these with my eyes closed, but for now zippers are still a hurdle for me :)

As with the Rhapsody blouse, I took the pictures before Gaby had tried the pants on. They fitted her quite well, but for the big pleats at the centre, which she didn't quite like. I modified them slightly, moving the pleats towards the sides and dividing them into two smaller pleats each. The end result was much more pleasing and I would have this mod in mind, if I make these pants again.

The last feature of these small pants are the pocket flaps. They are only decorative, as per pattern, no hidden pockets at the back of the pants. However, I find them an interesting detail, which gives the shorts a bit of sophistication and completeness.

Grey Shorts

I had a very big piece of light grey French terry, which I had bought for a set of joggers and hoodie for husband. And as it happens often, when I cut big pieces of fabric, I am often left with large scraps and my hands itch to make something extra from the left overs. 

The first that came to mind was a pair of shorts for myself. Two years ago I sewed two pairs of shorts and I gifted them both to Gaby, as she wanted something to wear at home during the summer months. I don't know if she does wear them, but I decided that I want a pair for myself as well.

The pattern is the same Burda 118 from 06/2021 I used for the previous two pairs, but with a slight modification - I decided to replace the original in-seam pockets with pockets with a slanted opening.

 

Pattern: Burda #118 06/2021 + Burda easy # 5 01/2019

Size: 34

Fabric: cotton French Terry

Time to make: in the course of a week

The shorts came out well, they are light and comfy and go especially well with this green Henley blouse, as I used some fabric scraps from it to add color to the pocket openings.

However, again and again, I am struck by the realization, that this is not really my style of leg-wear and next time I have some shorts-worth scraps of fabric, I will definitely try a different pattern.

Jack Joggers by Vikisews

These are the short joggers I made for our son together with the Burda shorts for myself out of the remnant cotton French terry fabric. For his shorts I used the newly acquired pattern from Vikisews, as I was not happy with the cut of the Burda pattern I used for my husband's joggers. To liven them up I added a strip of grey to the opening of the pockets and some labels from discarded old shorts.

I'm quite happy with the fit and I really like how these turned out. He's modelling them together with the grey T-shirt I made for him earlier this autumn.

And as my husband is absolutely in love with his warm joggers, I plan to sew a new pair of Jack joggers for husband, using some thick sweater knit cotton fabric.

Pattern: Jack by Vikisews

Size: 42 (M) Height: 178-184 cm

Fabric: cotton French terry

Time to make: 3 days

 

Bonus Burda Shorts

Remember these Burda joggers I made for myself about a month ago? The fabric is very high quality cotton french terry and I had quite a lot of it left. I could make another pair of joggers for myself or Gaby, but I decided to be generous and make something for Alex, even though he rarely requests hand made clothes.

Alex is in his early twenties and he is always hot, so he prefers shorts to long joggers. When I laid the pieces of the pattern (the newly acquired VikiSews Jack joggers) it became clear to me that I would have so large scraps left that if I placed all pattern pieces cleverly (my favourite game - pattern tetris again) could actually have a pair of shorts for myself too.

I already had the pattern cut and made once this summer - shorts 118 from Burda 06 / 2021. In all honesty I'm not a big fan of this pattern and next time I will definitely try some other cut. I did tinker a bit with the fit, but it ис still not the best, the problem is probably that these shorts аre simply too wide.

The only tricky part of the sewing are the in-seam pockets and this time I followed this video tutorial, probably the best of all I've watched on the topic on youtube. 

And one more detail - I made the same mistake as last time - added a wide elastic, finished everything off, tried the pants on and realized the gathering around the waist was awful. So, I took the elastic out, sewed three 13 mm channels into the waistband, using very narrow zigzag stitch, and added three strips of 1 cm elastic. This is definitely the correct way to elasticate wide women's shorts, ensuring the best distribution of the pleats of the fabric.

 

Pattern: Burda #118 06/2021

Size: 36

Fabric: cotton French Terry

Time to make:  two days

 

Pictures taken during our hike to Alinsky monastery this Saturday, when we enjoyed a gloriously warm weather for this time of the year. 

I hope Alex will pose for a few pictures of his shorts too, but who knows if and when :)

July Makes for Gaby

A few of my latest summer makes for Gaby. Unfortunately, again no modeled pictures :(, just flat photos.

First a set of a bralette and shorts. The bralette is a free sewing pattern, the Hyacinth Bralette by Ohh Lulu. I cut size XS, although Gaby's bust, according to the sixe chart, would fall into the XXS size, and still the bralette turned too small. The pattern pieces include 1/2" seam allowances, which came useful to increase the coverage, and again to that effect I added a 1" hem to the bottom of the bralette. 

I finished the raw edges of the bralette with fold-over elastic and although I had bought lingerie strap elastic, in the end I decided to make the straps out of the same fabric, for a better match.

Pattern: Hyacinth Bralette by Ohh Lulu

Size: XS

Fabric: scuba

Time to make: 2 days

The second make out of the sweet flowery scuba fabric is the hit of the summer - shorts with back pockets. The pattern is Burda #122 out of an old paper magazine I have in my collection - 02 / 2011. I made a muslin for the smallest size 36 and I liked a lot the fit on me, only a small sway back correction would be needed. For Gaby, I had to go down to size 34 and I took in the side seams a bit too additionally. I'm finding muslins, especially for pants, extremely useful, now I regret I got rid of a lot of old bedsheets not so long ago :)

Apart from fixing the fit, I made a few minor mods to the pattern - I skipped the front welt pockets and instead added patch back pockets. I also drafted a new waist band, incorporating the changes I had made to the fit of the pants. The band is lined with thinner polyesther lining (remnant from the lining for my hoodie), thus reducing the bulk at the waist.

The pants are closed with a fly front zip - I'm still finding my way around that feature, this is only my second time of installing such a zip. I found very useful Devon Thread Tales's Sasha trousers video and Tailor Girl's master class (in Russian). I ended using a combination of both techniques - there were some very useful tip in both videos.

Pattern: Burda #122 02/2011

Size: 36, modified

Fabric: scuba

Time to make: 3 days

Next is a simple off-white T-shirt. This was a very quick make, as I have the pattern pieces cut and the fit adjusted already. The pattern is my latest go-to fitted T-shirt pattern - Burda 6820. However, as the T-shirt came out a bit too plain, I'm not entirely opposed to the idea to try some tie-dyeing on it, while the print technique is still on trend.

Pattern: Burda 6820

Size: 36

Fabric: cotton jersey

Time to make: 1 day

And the final make for Gaby - another pair of shorts. These were made more as a test of the new pattern I bought recently - Burda 118 06/2021. I used fabric remnants from a pair of lounge pants I made for Alex. 

The pattern is fairly easy to make, with elasticated waist and in-seam side pockets. For the pockets I found this video tutorial very informative and with useful tips. You know, the devil in these operations is in the details and Burda never provides detailed instructions :(.

As I didn't have enough fabric, I had to make one of the front parts out of two pieces of fabric. I decided to make it a feature and added piping where the two parts were sewn together. This is my first piping and it could have been more even, but I'm not unhappy with it :)

Pattern: Burda #118 06/2021

Size: 36, reduced to 34

Fabric: polycotton jersey

Time to make:  two days

Gaby already wore these shorts at home (I made them at the end of last month) and found them comfortable, but not as good fitting as the ones I made her last July, using another Burda pattern, the tried-and-true Burda #117 05/2013.

 

Cropped Blouse and Paperbag Shorts

My latest makes for Gaby - a cropped blouse with ties at the fronts and paperbag shorts.

For months I've been planning a blouse for her with ties at the front. I considered a Burda pattern from a magazine I own, but it was long sleeved and a bit too open at the front. Then I downloaded a similar free french pattern, but Gaby didn't like the back of the blouse. So last week I browsed the Burda.ru site for sleeveless shirts and came upon Burda 6924 - it is cropped, with ties at the front and tailored at the back - just what I was looking for. I bought it and immediately printed it, cut and glued the pattern pieces and added my usual height corrections - removed 1 cm above the armscye and 1 cm above the waist, as regular Burda patterns are drafted for height 168 cm and Gaby is 163 cm.

My fabric is very light weight, gauze-like cotton, which was barely sufficient for the blouse, as it was single width (90 cm) - something I had somehow missed to notice in the fabric shop.

I followed the scanty instructions of the Burda pattern, my only modifications, beside the height adjustment, were my seams, which are french, and I covered the seam at the back between the neck and the collar with a bias tape, so I have no exposed fabric ends. And I reduced the buttons to four - five seemed a bit redundant for such a small cropped blouse with a lapel :)

Pattern: Burda 6924

Size: 34, shortened by 2 cm

Fabric: Cotton Gauze, 1 m

Thread: Polyester, cream

Time to make: 2 days

 

My second make are the shorts. I browsed for paperbag shorts and liked a lot of RTW items. The main features i wanted to recreate were the pockets, the paperbag waist, the turned cuffs and the large belt holders and the belt. For the basis of the pattern I used a true and tried Burda pattern - #117 of issue 05 / 2013.

 

I modified heavily the original long pants design - shortened them to 20 cm below the crotch, removed the upper elongations of the parts and added a separate belt, into half of which I added an elastic. I also made 5 long belt holders and a 6 cm wide 170 cm long belt, which Gaby skipped yesterday, as the tie of the shirt didn't combine well with the tie of the shorts belt.

Pattern: Burda # 117 05 / 2013, heavily modified

Size: 34

Fabric: cotton/linen blend, remnant from my husband's shirt

Thread: Polyester, cream color

Time to make:  1 day

 

A view of the shorts with the belt, tied in a butterfly: