Pleat Front Shorts

 When I was on holiday in Australia, nine years ago now, I bought a really lovely pair of shorts with pleats in the front.  Sadly they no longer fit but I kept them intending to replicate them.  My daughter also had a pair of tencel shorts with pleats in the front that she had completely worn out.  I managed to cut out a pocket to replace the damaged piece but this is only a short term solution.  Ha, see what I did there!  You are welcome!

Now along with the shorts in question, I also have a lovely pattern that I had made before with a tummy stay and a curved waist band and pleats at the front.  The pattern is New Look 6873. It  also no longer fits and is out of print now I think, so a bit of drafting was in order to make this pattern fit.  My solution was to slash and spread the pattern both width and lengthwise.  I then made a quick fit muslin from an old duvet cover to check the fit before cutting into my actual fabric.  It ended up too big, so once again I slashed and reduced until I had the fit I wanted.

The fabric I chose for my first pair is a lovely medium weight linen from the remnant bin at The Fabric Store in this delicious denim blue colour.  For the pocket stays and the waistband binding I found an old shirt that was my sons.  It is a lovely quality fabric and purchased  from an upmarket menswear store so it was a good fit with the lovely linen.

I have worn these shorts a lot since they have been finished.  The length is perfect for everyday wear and being blue they blend with just about everything in my wardrobe.  The only issue I have with them, is being linen they may not be very durable so I don't see these surviving for 9 years like their predecessors.  I do however think they will be loved to death!  Since finishing these I have bought some cotton/tencel from The Fabric Store for version 2.

I have worn my new shorts here with a tee that never made it to the blog.  This is once again Tessuti Alexa.  I made this one a size larger than normal because the fabric is a light weight drapey cotton lycra knit which I picked up at The Fabric Store.

Shorts
Pattern (used before) $0.00
Fabric $7.00
Zip $3.00
Total $10.00

Tee
Pattern (used before) $0.00
Fabric $10.00
Total $10.00