A monthly box of sewing goodies, delivered to your door

Laura’s Pietra Shorts Take 2

Laura had just 1m of September’s waffle cotton jersey and made a pair of Closet Core Patterns Pietra Shorts.

I know what you’re thinking. Laura, didn’t you make a pair of these shorts for your last mini make?

Yes, I did. But as soon as I saw the fabric this month, I couldn’t imagine making anything else. I have worn my other pair lots over the last couple of months, so it made perfect sense to make some more ready for my upcoming holiday.

After having worn my other pair of Closet Core Pietra shorts out and about, my only tiny niggle is that I find the leg rides up a little bit over the course of the day, more so when walking. So, the only change I wanted to make was adding a little bit of length to the inseam.

There isn’t a designated lengthen/shorten line on the pattern for the inseam, so I just drew a horizontal line on each of the pattern pieces – back leg and both front legs – at the first notch to make them even. I added 1.5” to give myself some leeway to hem exactly where I want after trying on.

Like with my other pair, I didn’t have quite enough to squeeze the pocket piece out of the 1 meter. I had this mustard yellow cotton in my stash that was a good match to bring out the little bits of yellow flowers in the main fabric and looks great paired next to the jade colour. I also used this for the facings for stability.

The fabric itself has a little bit of bounce and stretch, so I used a ballpoint needle and a regular straight stitch as I wanted to keep the structure of the shorts itself and didn’t need a stretchy stitch. Whilst the pattern is quite flexible on the suggested fabrics, stretch fabric wasn’t one of them, but these worked out amazingly.

The only thing is that I found the seams had a tendency to go a little wavy but this was easily straightened out with a good steamy press. Overall, the fabric was a dream to work with.

This is now my third pair of Pietras (I’ve also made the trousers version), so sewing up was super quick and easy. I could pretty much do it without the instructions.

Sewing the inseam is the final step before hemming, so it was perfect to try them on and mark the hem to exactly where I wanted. As the fabric is quite thick, I simply overlocked the raw edge and turned under once to help reduce bulk.

Out of habit, I did overlock all the raw edges. I don’t think it is strictly necessary with this fabric as it doesn’t look like it would fray.

We may only have a few more sunny days in England before the leaves drop and the cold sets in, but I imagine I’ll be wearing these as much as possible until then. I think they look great dressed up and down depending on the top and shoes.

They make me feel pretty fabulous!