Steampunk shorts

I decided my next challenge would be to make myself a pair of shorts. I have never made anything like this before. The closest I have been to stitching shorts was to repair my lads trousers (many times) when they were little as they often came home with the knees out and the crotch split open from playing football.

The pattern I am using is Simple sew, The Shannon collection, with black cotton drill as my fabric choice.

After cutting out the fabric, which was fairly straight forward, the next step was to put in the darts. I have done darts several times before so this was pretty straight forward. Once these were done I had to tackle the pockets. I have done pockets that are inserted into the side seams once before, on the skirt on a previous blog post, but not like the ones on this pattern. The process s pretty straight forward. It is just making sure that you have the right pattern pieces and that the undersewing is nice and neat.

The waistband is made in three separate sections in the front and one piece for the back. These are then doubled up to make the double thickness. A bit fiddly but not too bad. Once this was done it was on to the invisible zip. I have done zips before but never an invisible one. You tube however was my friend and after doing some research onto how to get the neatest finish it was time to put it into practice. Although it looks really tricky, it is more straightforward than it looks and I am really pleased with my first go.

I am really pleased with the result and will probably feel confident to do more invisible zips in the future. The only bit left to do now is to sew up the remaining seam, sew the legs and hem the bottoms. This was very straightforward and was really quick to do. The pattern states that the buttons are for decorative purposes only so no need to measure out and do button holes. Rather than ordinary buttons I wanted something a bit different. I found some Steampunk inspired octopus buttons in a local shop that I thought would be perfect. They had a shank on the back which I didn't want so this was cut off and invisible thread was used to attach them, using the tentacles as a fixing point as they had no holes. I am really pleased with the finished result and will definitely be making these again. The pattern is very straight forward to follow, with enough challenge for me to extend my skills. I enjoyed making them and already have several ideas on how to adapt them next time!