Untied front view

Untied side view

Back view

Tied front view

Tied side view

Tied-close-up side view

Tied-up close up

IMG_6353

IMG_6338

IMG_6345

Experience:

I’m definitely on the slower end when it comes to patterning and sewing, but I was able to mostly account for that – and I had a pretty positive experience making these! I spent a lot of time in the inital steps, reading Pattern Magic and watching other slash and spread tutorials to ensure I got it right which I believe paid off!

Successes/Mistakes:

When patterning, I was quite worried about the knee placement and size, as well as, the gather element of the piece. It worked out perfectly, with the knee hole being large enough for me to bend, and it hits at the knee when gathered and ungathered.

I think I choose the right fabric for this piece. That being said, I think during the patterning phase, I think I could have kept into account that the fabric had stretch to make a slightly more form fitting garment.

Future direction

I hope to dye this garment! I wanted to possibly due a light brown, and I bought white drawstring that I will dye a contrasting color!

In terms of other garments, I hope to make more pants! I had originally planned to do more holes, without gathers, randomly placed around the pant and I think I would like to make a pair of pants with lots of these holes, but without the gather. I want to try experimenting with more mesh-like fabrics in the future as well.

IMG_2322

IMG_2323

IMG_2324

IMG_2327

IMG_2328

IMG_2326

IMG_2329

IMG_2332

IMG_2334

Experience:
I’ve always wanted to make a skirt, and so I thought this was so fun and satisfying to make (especially when hemming and adding waistband).

Successes/Mistakes:
Since I wanted it to feel more ‘casual’, I wanted to add a gap/slit so the shorts can peek through in the original plan. This was my first time making a pleated skirt and I underestimated how much fabric I really needed so I had to refold the pleats a bit to make it feel more natural. Even though the fabric didn’t turn out to be as flowy as I wanted, I’m happy that ironing out the pleats more made it look nicer (it used to balloon a bit). The school girl pleated skirt look also turned out nicer than I thought (although it strayed a bit from the original intention). I also liked how the waistband turned out. I think if I were to make this again, I’d definitely opt for bigger buttons and maybe use white thread to add some accent some hemlines to match the white zipper.

Future Direction:
I definitely want to try make another pleated skirt with a more thinner, flowy material! Hopefully the pleats won’t be as harsh, but I definitely like the idea of creating more clothing that’d I wear casually.

Also, I have a couple process pictures here:

shorts mockup1

shorts mockup2

shortsmockup3

pleated w/o waistband

pleated w/o waistband2