Briar Tee and Elastic Waist Thurlow Shorts

During Me Made May I wore my first and only Briar tee shirt and remembered how much I liked it. I had just ordered some of this great Leah Duncan jersey with the intention of making it into a Plantain tee, but I decided to make it into a Briar Tee pattern instead. It was really funny to go back to a pattern that I’d only used once over a year ago. My systems for PDF patterns have changed over the last year. Now I send all of my files to my Kindle or iPad so I don’t need to print out the directions. Also, with a basic tee I don’t need the directions for much other than seam allowance information.

It was funny to find the printed directions in my file folder and also to not really find any notes to myself about fit changes I’d made. I knew I needed a forward shoulder adjustment and a slight swayback adjustment, so I made those changes to the pattern. I also knew I’d modified the high-low hem to not be so severe, but I hadn’t made the changes to the pattern. I took care of that, too, so that next time my pattern changes should be very minimal.

I think the fit of this one is really good, except for some bunching in the lower armscye. I think a sloping shoulder adjustment could help, or maybe just making a dart on my pattern to get rid of the excess fabric there. The fabric is so soft and I know I’ll be wearing this a lot over the summer.

My shorts are a modified version of the Thurlow shorts. Lisa G from Notes From A Mad Housewife came up with this idea and posted a tutorial on her blog. My pre-pregnancy Thurlows were fitting pretty well, so I was excited to give this version a try. I followed her tutorial, except I added an extra half inch all the way down the side seam, in addition to the half inch I added to the waist on the side seams and center back seam. My previous Thurlows were made from a stretch twill and these are a non stretch fabric so I figured I could use some extra room. My shorts are made the length of the pattern, but not cuffed. I also slimmed the leg a bit based on my favorite RTW shorts.

The fabric I used is a really nice linen/cotton blend in a dark denim color. I am really happy with it. It’s got the look of denim but it’s nice and cool for summer. I really want to make these again in a khaki linen and maybe try them in rayon. Elastic waist shorts sew up so quickly and I think this was such a brilliant hack on the Thurlow pattern. Thanks, Lisa!

Has anyone else started sewing shorts? Shorts on the line is happening over on Kollabora and I know I’ll be getting lots of inspiration over there.

~Teri