Planning and Design

I have plans for two loungewear sets made of cotton double gauze and I wanted one to be a combination of these shorts and the Hansie top. So needed to test the pattern before cutting into the nice fabric.

Materials

• Pattern
  • Lou Short (Cha’ Coud)
• Fabric
  • Plain 112cm Cotton Linen Fabric – Oregano (or maybe it’s Lagoon. Whichever one is not the one used in the Albie Woven Short Wearable Toile LOL) (Spotlight)
• Thread
  • Rasant col. X0651
• Elastic
  • Ribbed Non-Roll Elastic 25mm – White (Rubyjam Fabrics)

Sustainability Check

👍 Fabric is biodegradable

🤏 Rasant is OEKO-TEX but not biodegradable

👎 Elastic is likely polyester

Construction

Cheats TDCO….Except Not

So I’m a size 42 based on hip measurement. I was going to use 44 for the crotch size but there is barely any difference between sizes. And crotch depth is like only 5mm different between the 42 and 44. So I took out the Albie pattern to compare the crotch curves. The Anne is more scooped and the Albie is straighter. I guess I just have to make it to figure out how this difference in shape ends up in 3D. So I decided to just follow the size 42 for everything. But did extend the seam allowances to 1.5cm.

I made the TDCO toile out of bedsheets and to be honest, the instructions were a little confusing. I think part of it is because they are translated from French, but I also think the order of some things wasn’t the most logical, so these two aspects in conjunction meant I ended up having to reread the instructions multiple times even though the construction was quite simple. For the elastic, I decided to try 2.5cm ribbed elastic that I had originally bought for making sports bras. I’m not sure if ribbed also means non-roll (answer – yes for this particular one based on the item description by Rubyjam Fabrics), but I did feel like I had much less trouble than when I use knitted elastic. I cut the elastic 2cm longer for the overlap to make it in the round, but the plan was to eventually reuse the elastic for the wearable toile, where I’ll cut it at the join point and remove the excess 2cm and join the real deal with waste fabric to reduce bulk from having the elastic overlap.

Wearable Toile…Except Not

I used the Tessuti inseam pocket pattern but reduced it to 90%. Although after the seams are sewn, 100% probably still would have been fine. But 90% is still large enough to fit my flip phone/s, which is all that really matters. In terms of placement, I lined up the bottom of the curve where the turned up hem would stop.

I decided to test my inseam french seamed pocket knowledge and try do it from start to finish without referring to the tutorial. Is it any surprise that things went badly? 🤣 Well, badly as too much of a pain to undo and redo, but I actually remembered all the steps really well! My issue was I got front and back mixed up at some point so my french seams were opposite to the way they were meant to be LOL. I blame this on the fabric not having a clear wrong side. I’m not too sad, it was a good confidence check. When things go wrong that’s when you have to think hard about why it went wrong and get a better understanding of the method. So these shorts aren’t really wearable since I soldiered on and so my centre front seam is showing on the outside and my hems have some raw edges showing. It was still wearable around the house to check that the pockets were in the right place and french seams weren’t uncomfortable.

Reflections

I think this short is what I expected from the Piper Short, except I only found out about this pattern after I had already made and tried to adjust the Piper Short. I cut the elastic based on my waist measurement, but I can wear this on my hips and it is quite secure, maybe because it’s ribbed elastic? The very wide leg openings makes this very much loungewear and when you sit down the shorts almost don’t cover your butt LOL. I did try wearing it on my waist as well but it wasn’t very comfortable at the crotch seam and the length felt too short to the point that it kinda felt immodest haha.

Things I learnt:

• Be very careful fabric right and wrong sides when doing french seam inseam pockets
• Ribbed elastic is good for keeping elasticised waistbands on the waist.
• Cheats TDCO won’t work for all pant patterns depending on the way it crotch seam is drafted

Categories: Sewing

Tagged as: Cha' Coud Wearable Toile

hikaru