SewLibra:
For waist to through hips I'm using the Alina Chi-Town Chinos, a PDF pattern. The sizes contained are 0 - 22. I made the shorts last summer and there is a separate Flickr album if you're interested.
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My first time ordering from MOOD and I was more than pleased with this high quality olive stretch cotton twill. The zipper I ordered matched exactly! The thread I ordered was off, but I happened to have this Gutermann poly that was an exact match.
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Haha! The straight size 10 muslin was huge in the legs. Go ahead and laugh, I did! It looks like a skirt. I admit I have skinny thighs and I always have to taper shorts and pants, but this is ridiculous!
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I got out one of my own patterns and laid the Chi-Town on top of the front and back pieces. Quite a difference! I can't stand my shorts hem to stick out too far, like a bell. The proportion looks wrong that way on me.
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Rather than cut anything off my tracing this early in the game, I folded under the tapering as per my other pattern.
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After removing the basting on my muslin, I placed the folded Chi-Town over my fabric and cut the side seams and inseams. There was a lot of long stringy fraying going on with this poly fabric, so the next muslin you see will be from quilting cotton.
SewLibra:
Since I had tapered the sides so much, I needed to take a little off the slash pocket back facing, piece F, for a smooth hip line.
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I cut another muslin front, back, pocket facing and waistband because I couldn't deal with all that fraying. I decided to sew on the waistband real quick because when I sat, the back rise was too low. This way I could see if I needed to raise the rise.
SewLibra:
The pattern comes with a center back extension to use for a larger waist. I kept it on for cutting my real fabric just in case, and ended up cutting some of it off. I'm keeping it on the pattern though.
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The Chi-Town pattern states it is mid-rise, easy-fitting and straight through hip and leg. The waistband is faced, maintaining a clean finish. Even though I read that, it didn't click because the pic looked like a regular waistband to me.
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From my muslin I decided to shorten the front crotch 5/8". There was too much extra fabric there.
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Out of curiosity I compared the front crotch of the Jalie Eleonore (jeans). As I suspected it came up much higher! But these are relaxed fit, so let's compare the Jalie Vanessa. Both those patterns fit me well.
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Here is the front crotch comparison with the Jalie Vanessa. Not a whole lot of difference in height but it is quite a bit longer on the Chi-town. Nevertheless, I had already taken off 5/8" and afraid to do more!
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I scooped out 3/8" from the back crotch for more sitting comfort. My rear end has lowered over time....ugh.
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I want to end up with a 5" inseam so I lengthened by 3/4". I should have only done 1/2" and fixed that later. The pattern has a 4 1/2" inseam.
SewLibra:
Since I tapered the sides I needed "wings" for my hem to fit up inside. Taped some paper on each edge, folded up at the 1 1/4" hem line, then trimmed the bottom and sides so they fit the side seams.
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Here I have marked the 5/8" seam allowance, my 5" inseam and 1 1/4" hem on the backside. Definitely when all is said and done and if the shorts work out, I'll retrace my pieces to make them look nice. :)
SewLibra:
Almost all of my shorts are 10" at the hem in front leg and 12" in the back leg. Those are FINISHED measurements. I marked my 5/8" seam allowances and trimmed as necessary to get those measurements.
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The instructions did not call for waistband interfacing, however I wanted to interface half the band. The pieces say "facing" so I was looking all around for the other pieces. I figured it was a mistake on the wording. It was not. More later!
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There are two curved waistband pieces (I like curved WBs!) but they are different from each other, one for left and one for right. Make sure to cut fusible interfacing so that the glue side will fit the pieces. Dot = Wrong Side.
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I only want to interface the half of the waistband that will be on the outside so I marked dots and cut from dot to dot. The un-interfaced side (wider side) will be eased in on the inside.
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Here are all the pieces that need to be interfaced, plus I pressed 1/2" on the wide side of the waistband as per instructions.
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I chose the rounded pocket from the choices in the pattern, though the angled pocket would have been easier to get even and to sew. I gathered the corners and used the first one as a guide to the second one. Next time I think I'll do the angled ones!
SewLibra:
The instructions don't have you stabilize the front slash pocket opening, but I always do whether it's a woven or stretch fabric. I used Design Plus Fusible Stay Tape (Straight) on the 5/8" seam line.
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I like the way Alina does the pocket bags. Just like RTW jeans! This is what the first step looks like, very strange and not like a pocket at all.
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Next you line it up and fold so the pocket bag looks like this. Sew across the bottom, trim the seam allowance, turn inside out and topstitch. It's a French seam!
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On the right, shows the finished French seamed pocket which gives a clean finish. (Never mind I serged everything else - LOL.) I could have used a thinner knit for the pocket bags but using the same fabric worked out fine.
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Ultra important: Mark your left and right fly parts! The instructions make it clear from here on out when they say left or right, it's how you wear it finished on your body. This is a safeguard because there are a ton of instructions!
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Oh man, this made me nervous, cutting up at an angle like this. I've made many fly front pants and have never cut upward like this. Just do it though. ;)
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The shape of the bottom of the fly is exactly what I thought would happen, even though the illustration shows it rounded at the bottom. On the Chi-Town online sewalong however, it looks like this. Whew! I went ahead and serged my raw edges.
