Burda Magazine Combo Shorts

I continue on my seemingly never ending quest to get through my own personal Fabric Mountain.  I bought this purple linen with the intention of making shorts about two years ago.  The pattern is a combination of two from Burda magazine; one too short and the other too wide.  I made the short shorts before, about which I was left with a long list of internal complaints.  Now I have these, with their own list.

I was amazingly pleased with how the construction was going, I was proud of the high standards I was setting myself.  And then it all gradually began to unravel.

When I attached the waistband, I bizarrely managed to do it with the pocket laid out open and flat.  Creating the effect of a strange bulge in one of my hips.  This problem I persisted with and fixed, I should have taken a photo though, it was funny lookin'.

I am ashamed to say that making my previous pair of shorts, I had a bit of a tantrum trying to insert the zip-fly opening.  I was so proud of the patience with which I inserted this zip, only to realise that I'd done it wrong.  After finishing I remembered the dimensions given in the pattern for the underlap were too small.  Not having corrected this, it wasn't obvious to extend the waistband to connect to the underlap, so it stops too short.  The fly opening doesn't sit completely flat now. This makes me wonder whether the tantrum served quite a useful purpose.  It's a pretty fiddly problem to fix and mostly solved by the fact I generally wear longer tops.  It  does however undermine my view of myself as striving for perfection, but I just can't be bothered right now, maybe I'll do it later. 

My last problem stemmed from my attempt at combining two patterns.  The legs were still ridiculously wide, like culottes with all the fabric gathering between my legs.  I took in the seams to fix this, but they don't sit as well as they should do.

I think a lesson I have learnt from this experience is the value of making patterns up in calico first to get the design and cut absolutely right.  Whether I actually choose to put this learning into practise remains to be seen.









And finally having your children act of photographer is a good exercise in ego removal and not taking yourself too seriously.