Camo shorts and cropped trousers

I wanted some cropped trousers and couldn’t find any I liked in the shops. To be honest, I didn’t really look – I would much rather make my own!! I found some more camo fabric in Abakhan, and got this pattern to match. In hindsight I questioned my pattern choice – as the jeans pattern I made was McCalls, and I didn’t really like the cut – but then I decided for camo style cropped trousers, the loose fit would be good. The pattern was also really expensive in Abakhan. Not sure if their pricing or McCalls’!

So that I didn’t waste too much fabric if it went wrong I made the shorts first. Holiday booked for Italy, so needed some shorts for the warm weather (and that we were having here in UK too at the time!). I looked at the sizes, and while I would buy in a size 12, the measurements on here looked like I would need a size 16!! Wow! I should have made smaller, as the pattern obviously has plenty of ‘ease’ in it. Strangely I didn’t notice quite how baggy the shorts were, so made the trousers the same size. Main area that annoys me is the bagginess around the crotch. However, they are comfy, and were ideal to wear on the plane!!

The main reason for picking this pattern was the scalloped waistband. Lots of trimming so that the curve looks good when turned the right way out:

I think it was quite successful! For the second go for the trousers I changed the waistband size and made it overlap better at the front:

The cropped trousers have ties at the bottom:

Both finished: