The shorts saga

I've been meaning to try making clothes for myself for some time now, and naturally I decided to start with one of the most difficult pieces, pants. I wanted to make pajama pants, so even if they weren’t very good I could still wear them.

As whenever I want to learn something new, I looked for tutorials and found several, each with a different way of doing it. I chose to first make a base trouser pattern because that way I would have a base to later adapt to various types of trousers and shorts.

So, I made the base trouser pattern and from it a pilot piece using an old sheet, I did everything as if it were the final piece, and in the end when I went to put it on I didn't like the result, I don't even remember what the problem was because it was several months ago. I then decided to reduce the pattern to knee-length shorts to make things easier and save fabric. If I could make the pattern then I would just use it to make a pattern for pants.

I made a new pattern and a new pilot piece, I detected a problem and tried to correct it, I couldn't, I made another pattern and a new pilot piece and so on, either they were tight, or there was excess fabric on the leg, or it formed a mustache in the front, or they became small and so on, until I had no more fabric (light pink). I was almost giving up, but I decided to take a break and try again after a while.

Several months later I decided to try again, I started from scratch, and the saga began again, the first pattern was almost good, the problem was going from almost to good, it went better than the first time but I still had to make several, the pieces from this second attempt are the darker pink ones.

Once again, when I was ready to give up, it was my last attempt; I got a pattern and a pilot piece that I was satisfied with. I ended up with seven pilot pieces (six shorts and one pair of pants) apart from the ones I made and took apart to use the fabric to make others, I lost count of the number of pieces I made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that I had the base pattern I decided to make some pajama shorts with elastic, I used the base pattern and adapted it. This time I didn't make a pilot piece, but when I tried them on I thought there was excess fabric on the leg so I changed the pattern, took them apart and made them again.

The shorts were good in the sense that they were well finished, but I didn't like the result, I think there was too much fabric, but I couldn't see how to fix it without them being tight when I went to put them on.

 

 

 

Answering the question “Was it worth the effort?” Yes and no, yes because I tried something new, I did the cutting and assembly and everything lined up, I practiced sewing on the overlock and tested a decorative stitch on the hem, so it wasn't wasted time. No, because the end result did not satisfy me, so I will continue to buy pants and shorts.

I want to try to make a blouse and a dress, I think they will be easier to make, we will see when that will be, for now I need a break because I can no longer look at patterns.

This is the video with the final result and the various pilot pieces I made to get there. It's a real life example because as I said before, I think it's important to also show the errors and problems because real life is not a video where everything goes smoothly and the errors are edited.