Pixie Shorts

I am having physiotherapy on my knee so I needed shorts. I know a lot of religious women won’t wear them out of modesty, but when you have to do a lot of leg exercises, shorts are more modest than skirts. 🙂

So I made these from my brother’s too-short trousers. They were a sort of moleskin fabric, and are is apparently Italian-made (when they were trousers). I adjusted my Audrey Short pattern (which I haven’t told you about yet) to have princess seams and those petal shapes at the front.

When I put them on yesterday, with socks after my bath, my legs looked quite stocky in them. (I think I look much better in tights.) Rather than think of my legs as stocky though, I would rather think of them as pixie-ish, like Tinkerbell. It’s much better to put a nice spin on things, isn’t it? I think that’s the start of a good body-image for anyone and you might as well like yourself because you’re the only self you’ll get. 🙂

Upcycled Pixie Shorts (worn with upcycled t-shirt)

The hardest thing was sewing the curves neatly, which I didn’t quite manage to do. In retrospect, I ought to have done a faced hem, but I was upcycling and it was a miracle that the waist-facing was exactly the right length (by accident). I also ought to have used cotton tape to stay the waistline because it’s ever-s0-slightly stretched now.

I didn’t need to add a gusset to these shorts. I pressed the seam open (well, finger-pressed) and they’re perfectly comfortable as they are. Calico seems to be unreliable for fitting purposes because it’s so unlike any fabric you’d actually wear.

Sabrina

P.S. Yes, these are inspired by the Pattern Runway shorts, and there’s the link to make up for my not buying the pattern (how can I when I can draft one?).