Apologies for the brief silence but this week was summer! As summer is usually a brief affair in these parts – sometimes nothing more than a rumour on a waft of warm air that turns out to be just chip van exhaust – everything was suspended until things returned to normal. We had one full week of sun, blue skies, temperatures hovering around 20C and, after the initial shock, it became clear that nobody knew what to do with themselves. I made shorts and practised with the curtains closed. What did you do?
I can’t remember if these were part of my summer sewing plan but does that really matter?!
Pattern: Iris shorts by Colette.
This is such a ridiculously easy pattern, I’m not sure it really warrants the price tag. Maybe someone more industrious and thrifty would dig around online or on Burda and find something similar. I just wanted something where I knew I didn’t have to make a muslin. It is a perfect beginner’s pattern with lots of leeway for embellishment.
Fabric: I bought 3m of navy linen from Murphy Sheehy’s for something like €40 and this took up 90cm of it. I’m using the rest of it for a jacket which I’m in the process of making right now.
Linen is linen, you know? These pictures show what linen shorts will look like if you wear them for most of the week and never hang them up.
What swayed me to use this pattern over any other is the pockets. Shorts absolutely must have good front pockets for me since when it’s shorts weather, I usually spend most of my time standing around like this. These have particularly good pockets. As you can probably guess, I lengthened the inner leg for about 3 inches. I don’t have especially beautiful legs so I think an extra 3 inches goes a long way for everyone.
Here is a close up of the pocket detail. You could go really crazy with this pattern and use a different fabric for the front leg panel or just for the pocket linings… or put on back pockets with appliqued lace or add lace to the hems. It’s got lots of options if you think about it.
Shown in the photos is my old Scout tee. To be truthful, I never wore this very much at all because it was too big and quite drafty. I adore the fabric so I put it in my mending pile and finally got around to disassembling it. I cut a size 0 out of the pieces and reused the bias binding. It worked perfectly and I’ve been wearing it all week.