City Gym Shorts

It's taken me several years to rather begrudgingly embrace shorts as more than a loathed clothing item. I'm pale. I have thighs. I have issues with those two things combining in an unflattering way. But then I found a couple of pairs of shorts in thrift stores that fit and were flattering! Shorts! Who knew?!

I'm still not perfectly sold on short-shorts as regular day wear but it's hot here in New York and I like to be able to move about in the garden without flashing my neighbors, so when I saw the City Gym Shorts pattern on the Purl Bee, I thought, why not? At least I can make a try to make a wearable muslin and end up with a pair of PJ shorts in the process if I don't like the finished look on me.

In deference to the original pattern I picked my most Liberty-esque print (a Wamsutta scrap fat quarter from NYC Quilt Guild) and some coordinating solids for the back and waist band. For the bias tape I used the very last of the vintage stuff I bought many moons ago at an Astoria thrift store. I screwed up royally sewing it on, but I don't really care, it looks fine from even a small distance.

 

I made the 38-40" shorts because my hip measurement is somewhere around 38" but I think next time (yes, next time) I'll have to go a size up. These fit but with no stretch in the fabric they are a bit too snug. I have a feeling that my printer shrunk the pattern a smidge, so your mileage may vary when it comes to picking a size. I asked the designer whether it would be possible for her to insert a size guide in the pattern (a square of known size) to prevent this kind of thing, so hopefully that wont be a problem for anyone else.

 

I had a bear of a time getting the elastic into the waist. Again I was using something from the big bag of thrifted goods and probably it was a touch too wide. I'll have to cut the waist band a 1/2" wider on the next pair.

This was an extremely simple pattern and very quick to put together, and if I was really a shorts person rather than someone who just plays one on the weekends, I'd sew up a dozen!