I Beg Your Pardon... "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden"

Okay, I've heard of word association but fabric song association!...really...its driving me bonkers - you know when you get a tune stuck in your head and it just won't budge...agggrrrrr..

                                                                      

Them ikkle yellow rose buds look so innocent on their bed of cerise cotton, and really appealed back in the spring (they certainly have some answering to do now). Not being too sure what I was going to make, I picked up about 2-3 meters (there's a fair bit left so may-be it was 3 - easily get  a top out of the left overs)  

Now, trousers needed to be conquered at some point, especially after my mishap of some cropped denim pants that went from a dowager's hump to a full camel hoof! (I assure you these were beyond decency to blog about) So shorts seemed to be the next best thing to tackle.  

                                                     

Being soft 'n' floppy cotton this was definitely suited to a wide(er) legged short, something like the Megan Neilson  Tania Culottes  look,  but having already ordered the McCalls 6965 way back in the year, I somehow couldn't justify another pattern purchase...WHAT! I can always justify patterns and fabric- obviously a lapsed  moment  there. 

At this point, I feel rather responsible and perhaps owe the good peeps of Britain and apology for the downturn in weather; we have had some gorgeous sunshine of late with temps of 20+, perfect for wearing shorts- these come a long, with my pasty looking pins and whooosh the sun hides behind clouds!      

I did a bit of background research on these, just to check if there were any anomalies with making up. Soooo glad I did before blundering in, I found these two reviews most helpful  here and here.  There is NOOO way I could wear shorts that short and went for the mid-length version.

Being a diligent sewer (errr..not always), I even made up a muslin to check out potential smiles, frowns and dowager toes! Yep, minor alterations required, to prevent that undignified procedure of internal fabric removal from ones butt! hence the the crotch was dropped by a cm.  

Construction is pretty much straight froward, with each leg made up of four pieces and a centre back zip. To add some customary detailing, yellow piping was added to the waist seams- which gives these fairly ordinary shorts some cuteness.  The one thing I do think that is lacking, are pockets, ye' just gotta have a pocket or two!

These are really easy to wear and I'm seriously considering making up the full length palazzo  version in a cotton viscose that I have in the stash; although toying about increasing the height of the waist and inserting a facing rather than the fixed waistband and of course them all important pockets- what do you think, would it work?

Thanks for popping by and reading; back soon. Amanda XX