Casual Linen Shorts w/ an Accidental Paperbag Waist

Hello and Happy Monday! Hope you had a wonderful weekend full of sunshine! I sure did -- can you tell? This golden sunset helps me look more sunkissed than I really am, but I did spend some time pool- and lake-side this weekend! I also spent plenty of time sewing machine-side.

Here are some linen shorts I made! The pattern was self-made, and I knew I wanted them to be pull-on, so I made them pretty loose. I wanted something super comfy for the heat we are (hopefully) about to have, and this linen is a perfect complement to the fit.  

 They have patch pockets in back, front pockets, front pleats, and double needle topstitch detail. I serged the inseams/outseams and rise, and then topstitched down for a faux-flat felled look. Funny story, I actually killed three partial spools of thread with all the topstitching on these shorts. Don't ask me why I had three partial spools of tan thread! I planned to just have a drawstring waist, but these shorts had other ideas. Somehow, they accidentally became paperbag waisted.

"Somehow" meaning, I wasn't thinking when I topstitched the top edge of the waistband above the drawcord channel. I had set two lines of stitching before I tried them on and realized I was headed for a ruffled mess: the stitching made the top edge stand away from the body like there was a wire in it! I dug around for some elastic, and set that in the waistband below the stitching to help mitigate the disaster, but it was only about 1" high elastic for a 2" waistband. This, of course, does not help prevent the ruffled mess--it just makes for smaller ruffles. In retrospect, I should have gotten wider elastic, picked out the top stitching, and set the elastic at the very top of the waistband. But that would have required patience (and the dreaded seam ripper), and honestly, I have neither! I just wanted to finish these shorts.

In the end, I can live with the waistband because my shirt will cover most of it, most of the time. Once I threaded the drawstring through, I decided I halfway liked the waistband, even! These only took a handful of hours, and the elastic waist meant fitting was simple. Should there be a next time for this pattern, I will make several corrections, but for some easy-breezy summer shorts, I'm happy with how these turned out!

#HawaiianShirtFriday

Hawaiian Shirt Friday is the greatest excuse to wear the finest, most cheerful prints in your closet. 

It is also a great excuse to make another Grainline Archer shirt. I wanted to try different things with this pattern: namely mistake recovery, but also short sleeves and a new body length. 

I started cutting this out at about 11pm one Saturday night, and guys, this was not my greatest plan. To begin with, I am not patient with pattern layouts. I like to pin, cut, pin, cut, one piece after another, and hope for the best. But when you have just over 1 yard of fabric from which to make your shirt, you should probably plan your cutting layout, right? RIGHT? 

One might hope! One might... piece fabric together after mistakenly cutting two left fronts. One might have button bands that overlap the wrong way. One might need to use contrast fabric in order to even complete the project. ...So much for mistake recovery.

In all seriousness, I'm pretty happy with how this shirt turned out. I cut the same size as before, size 4 blending to size 6 at the hips, but went with the original pattern length, and shortened the sleeves.  I sewed the sideseams and underarm seams at 3/8" instead of 1/2" for a slightly boxier look. Because of fabric constraints and cutting mistakes, I had to piece one front panel together, along with the placket. The under collar and stand are contrasting, as is some trim on the sleeves and the pieced seams. I have about three yards of this amazing striped fabric, so expect to see plenty more of it!

What else is different? I resolved my issues with the placket, and folded over the proper amount for the underplacket. Had I put more than a single pocket on this bad boy, I'm 90% sure they would have been the same distance from CF. Maaaaybe 93%.

I serged my side seams, underarm seams, and armholes, saving myself a fair amount of time in doing so. Skipping long sleeves and cuffs helped as well, but the holiday weekend slowed production down on this shirt. Otherwise, it was a really quick go around for a second try of this pattern.

I also picked up a new camera and lens - a Canon SL1 and 50mm f/1.8 lens. I am learning so much! But it's already magic without much effort -- look at that depth of field! The lighting! I'm so excited to keep learning about photography and experiment with these new tools. Any tips on this new adventure of mine?