Pink Gingham: Shorts - Butterick 9779

Simple shorts but I’m so happy with them!

A simple true 50s pant has been on my want list for some time, but all of mine have needed grading. And so did this one, but it also had shorts. Picked up at Nefelibata, and was just what I was looking for.

I copied out the Medium height short short but feel like I shoulda copied out the tall to make my grading one step easier (vertically), because slash and spread is slow going.

I muslined in cotton from Matchpoint and they came out just a smidge short, so I added length to the pink gingham but did something not quite right there so I had to do a smaller hem than desired. Walk your seamlines, folks.

I was Extremely Pleased with the seam finish I opted for, flatlining, but I did decide on it after adding in the darts, soooo it took burrito-ing the seams. Which is always fun and I’m here for it. HOWEVER The finished shorts are a touch snug,and I think this is because I should have accounted for turn of cloth in the flatlining (i did 1/4 seam to connect the two pieces then enclosed in a 3/8 seam. I probably should have gone 1/4 - 1/4).

Zip insertion tooka couple goes, the first time I inserted it way too low and it caused awful gaping.

I stuck a little bit of banrol in the end of the waistband buttonhole section. It works great! I should have banrol-ed the whole waistband! The slight over tightness of the shorts does make me wonder if not banrol ing was the right move after all, since cotton will of course give more.

lengthened waistband closure to display pink button.

I have a series of these gingham garments planned for a summery set that will use up this precious fabric, which is one of the most serious treasures found in my abuela’s traveller trunk when my parents got it open earlier this pandemic (a truly magnificent phrase, that). It’s very much my colour, which not all of the found fabrics are, and it’s cotton, which makes it more versatile for me than the polyesters we found.

Fabric: Abuela’s cotton gingham
Pattern: Butterick 9779, medium height, shortest shorts
Size Made: 25 waist graded to 30 waist
My Measurements: 30 waist, 39 hip
Next time: a touch more ease, maybe pleats, maybe pockets. banrol waistband. fix the dang hem issue!