McCall's 5391 (Shorts)

This was my first attempt at pants of any kind. I needed another pair of shorts for the summer and this pattern was one of the few that included pockets. Honestly, why is it so hard to find women's fashion with useful pockets?!

This pattern went together very smoothly. I used some bottom weight linen that has been in my stash for well over a year. That always feels good.

I haven't taken a class to fit my pants sloper yet, so I just decided to take this one on faith. The only made 2 adjustments: to blend from the size 16 waist to the size 14 hips and to shorten th legs by 3 inches. Having made the shorts, I now realize that they sit so low that the waist measurement was not such an influence on the fit for me as it is for tops and dresses. I could have easily used the size 14 all over (maybe even a size 12, I have very straight hips).

You can see in the back and front that there are some odd psuedo-pleats being formed by my belt. I think I could eliminate much of this by playing around with the depth of the pleats on the back and moving a size down in the waist.

I belt carriers are also oddly wide and long, but I think they work just fine. All in all, I think this will be a very useful addition to my wardrobe. I'm going to keep this pattern around and play with the fit a bit.