I finished these shorts back in August – my Burda Challenge for July. I always add 2 inches in height just below the waist for pants. I think a lot of my extra height is carried between my ribs and hips, but having the shorts this high is just too much.

That said, I haven’t seen these pictures for a few months and they don’t look as bad as I remember…

except from this angle.

They are even kind of cute like this. I plan to shorten them a tad, and stitch down the pleats on the front. I really should lower that fake back pocket, while I’m at it. Since these are all fantasy alterations anyway, I’ll make a fake back pocket for the other side too.

I can’t believe it’s August already. I haven’t had too much sewing time, as we’ve been spending our days at amusement parks, waterslides, and swimming pools. I’ve lived in Wisconsin for 4 years, and only discovered the Dells (waterpark capital of the world). I knew it existed before, just hadn’t experienced it. The rest of our time has been spent packing, because we are finally moving back to Vancouver, my hometown. Yay, Canada!

I did finish this simple top. And it was simple, but I’m stepping out of my comfort zone working with silk. I was slightly short on fabric so I omitted the back seam. I also finished the neckline with bias strips instead of a facing. Probably a mistake, the neckline looks a bit tortured. After skimming the seam allowances down to 1/4″ to fit the pattern on, I ended up taking out 3/4″ of the side seams. I had lots of troubles sewing straight, so there were weird puckers every so often.

In the end it turned out okay. The armholes are a bit tight. Maybe someday I’ll fix it. I have enough bias to redo one arm hole, so I’d have to piece together some very small bits of fabric if I wanted to fix both.

Now I’m just waiting for the weather to cool off. I think this would look better with jeans.

Thanks for stopping by.

These pants are finally complete! They weren’t that difficult, but I stumbled a few places along the way. They are very high waisted, designed to be 2″ above the waist. I added 2″ below the waist and 2″ in the leg to accommodate my tall stature, and these landed 2″ above my waist. Having the pants so high didn’t feel comfortable, and I removed the 2″ above the waist. Fruitless, right? Adding and subtracting, but the fit is nice, so maybe not.

Shortening the waist meant cutting the invisible zipper, and even though I secured the top with some stitches, the zipper pull came off and refused to go back on. I removed the zipper and tried a non-invisible zipper, but it looked terrible. After a trip to the store, I finally redid the invisible zipper and completed the pants.

They are still so high, and a bit too short. I did omit the leg zips and made the bottoms a bit wider. If I make another pair I might add the zips.

Hurray! April Burda challenge complete! Since it’s July now, I’ll just move on to July. Thanks for stopping by.