You know how you have patterns and fabric for six sewing projects just waiting for you at home, but you go out to buy more anyway? This project is definitely the case.
I was having a bad day at work, saw that Jo-Ann’s was having a $2 McCall’s pattern sale and linen was 60% off, and this project was born.
And, despite having fit issues with my previous projects involving McCall’s patterns, I decided to dive into this project without making a mock-up.
Why? Well, this pattern looks deceivingly easy. A loose pair of shorts or pants with some cute embellishments, a lapped zipper, pockets, and a waistband. I thought that the zipper would be the difficult part as I’ve never sewn a lapped zipper before. Boy, was I wrong.
I decided to tackle View A as I’ve been into loose and flowing bottoms lately, and thought that the flounce at the bottom was a cute touch. My first red flag on the difficulty of this project was that there are ten pattern pieces for these shorts. I was a bit surprised, as the finished garment didn’t look that complex.
Ten pattern pieces including the flounce, and eight pieces if you don’t want to add the flounce. And that’s before you have to cut out interfacing for the waistband.
As I am on the short side (under 5’0”), I took the crotch up one inch after vaguely test-fitting the pattern piece on me. That was my first mistake.
My second mistake was not taking my measurements before buying this pattern and assuming I would still fit a 28-30 inch waist. But, more on that later.
For this project I used a desert orange linen-look fabric from Jo-Ann’s. While still slightly transparent, the color was dark enough to not have to worry about a loose pair of shorts to be too see-through. It frays pretty easily as well, but that puts my pinking shears to good use!
I also bought a tailor’s ham for this project, and it has been a game-changer for ironing curved seams. I tried to buy one while I was sewing face masks last year. But, like a lot of things since the pandemic started, it was very often sold out at the store (and way too expensive online, for some weird reason).
Sewing the Lapped Zipper
As I said, this is my first time sewing a lapped zipper. I thought I would have to do more seam ripping and re-sewing, but I feel like I was pretty successful just following the pattern instructions and illustrations. I’ll admit that I leaned heavily on the illustrations for the directions to make sense, and pinned a lot of seams to make sure that I would be sewing them correctly. I would honestly ditch the pattern instructions and follow a YouTube tutorial instead. However, I was happy to have a still-working zipper sewn into the front of my shorts.
What I did first is mark how far to iron each side of the zipper opening to create the “front” and “back” of the zipper. That’s because the pattern instructions calls for the fold of each side to be different widths. 
Here’s what the zipper opening looks like after it’s ironed. After that is where the pattern instructions get a little confusing. Basically, you sew the side of the zipper that will be the “back” face down on the inside of the front of the shorts. Then close the zipper and sew the other side of the zipper opening on top of the zipper. (I had to go slow on my sewing machine to make sure I didn’t sew into any of the zipper teeth.) You’ll get a much better explanation by searching “how to sew a lapped zipper” in YouTube. 
Here’s what the back of the completed zipper looks like on the inside (or “wrong” side) of the front of the shorts. First time sewing with a zipper foot in a while, so the stitches look a bit dodgy around the zipper pull. (Don’t worry, they haven’t come undone on me yet.) 
Here’s what the completed zipper looks like on the outside (or “right” side) of the shorts. Not bad for a first attempt!
Sewing the Crotch Seam
Like the zipper, the sewing pattern directions for the crotch seam were equally as confusing. I took some pictures of the process to hopefully better illustrate how to sew the back of the shorts to the front. You basically sew the short “L” of both pieces together, then sew up the center back of the shorts to close them. This took a few times of rearranging, re-pinning, and squinting at the illustrations to figure that out.
First, with “right” side of the front and back of the shorts facing each other, pin and sew the short “L” of the back pieces to the front. 
Then just pin and sew of the center back of the shorts from your new crotch seam. 
This is what the crotch seam and back of the shorts look like once it’s sewn together.
With the zipper on and the front and back sewn together, I did my first test fit. Surprisingly, they fit really well! Not too snug, but not too loose. The crotch didn’t seem too short or too long on me. I had hope that I’d get lucky with this pattern, and maybe it’ll fit right out of the pattern envelope. Of course this was before I moved on to the waistband, where my hope would slowly wither away.
But more of that in Part 2!
(Seriously, this waistband deserves its own blog post)
4 Comments
Add Yours →Wow, I applaud you! Its pretty awesome what you are creating and all on your own. I always had a difficult times with patterns. I would get so frustrated. Its like another language to try to understand. The zipper looks great! The material is a pretty color!!! Excited to see the final product:)
Thanks so much! I’m happy to improve on ironing my seams and properly using pinking shears with this project. And, working with seeing patterns does take practice, but you do get better with each pattern you try!
The pant’s zipper is hard to sew! ! You did a great job. Before Utube, I had to read the directions many times. I am glad there is a model now. The more you do it, the better you get at it!
Since retirement seems to the cards, I am planning on doing more sewing myself. So glad we share the same passion ❤️
Thanks! I challenged myself this time around by just following the pattern instructions and illustrations on sewing the zipper without looking up any additional tutorials. Now that I have an idea in how to do it, the next lapped zipper hopefully won’t be as complicated.
And glad to hear that you’re doing more sewing! Can’t wait to see what you make!