Simplicity 3796 Shorts -- Kind Of

I say kind of because we changed some things.  How about for once I just take a pattern, make it, have it fit, and not have to or want to change anything.  That would be to easy right.  My daughter picked out this basic drawsting shorts pattern.  Why didn't I remind myself that anything that seems basic isn't? 

This was my first attempt making shorts so I knew going in that there were alterations to be done which is why I made a muslin first.  After making the muslin I realized that there would need to be some adjusting done in the crotch, yoke, and casing areas. Being the beginner that I am I tried to do some research.  Being the impatient person I am,  I tried to do what seemed logical in my beginner's mind. Adding some fabric to the top of the yoke and casing and in the back crotch seemed logical.  It worked to some extent but I should have added more.

After trying on the muslin my daughter decided she wanted cuffed shorts.  Okay, that shouldn't be to hard.  But we'll get to that in a moment.

The next hurdle I had was once again a buttonhole.  After doing several tests I couldn't figure out what was wrong.  I didn't have the thread tension on the right setting.  That was easy enough to fix but goodness it took me long enough to figure out.  After doing a couple of tests I was satisfied and added the buttonholes to the garment.  Ripped the fabric and of course I ripped through some of the buttonhole thread so it started to unravel. Basic shorts, hmph.  I carefully picked out all of the thread and redid the buttonhole around the cut fabric.  It turned out better than I thought it would thank goodness. Not perfect but not a lost cause.

The next place I went wrong was the topstitching. I thought it would be a nice contrast to do white topstitching on the black and white shorts. Wrong. It all came out in the end and I redid it in black.

Cuffs, the shorts were to long so she wanted to roll the bottoms up. Beginner's mind once again thought that I could take two approaches.  Cut the excess fabric from the hemline, turn it inside out, sew it back on so when she rolls the bottom it will be the right side of the fabric was one method.  The other method which LaniJ said would probably be better would be to affix a ring a fabric to the inside of the shorts so she would have the option of cuffing them or not.  Sounded good so I went with that option.

I measured, sewed, and felt quite proud, until I rolled the cuff and realized I had made a mistake. You could see the seam allowance when you rolled the cuff. Even though I had though it through in my haste I sewed them in the wrong order.

My poor seam ripper gets no rest.


Here is the final version of these shorts:

It could have been worse!! I think I will try these again and make a few more adjustments. Sewing the same pattern several times totally makes sense to me now. Not that I am thrilled about these shorts but I do think another time around and they will be better.