Last fall I kept coming back to a photo in my social media feed: a simple pair of shorts styled with an oversized white shirt. So basic, but it was the topstitched, embellished fabric of the shorts that I adored. It’s something I had been thinking about lately: taking a simple fabric and adding your own embelishments to it to make a patterned fabric.
Shorts seemed like a manageble size for trying it out, for myself, so I cut out our Lisboa Walking Shorts from a pinstriped silk fabric in my stash, grabbed some chalk and a spool of black thread, and sat down at the machine. A fun weekend project, just to see what would happen.
Once I had the machine tension set so the stitching didn’t pucker, the embellishment was very easy! I made up the topstitching pattern as I went, following the stripes of the fabric, and choosing where to pivot to create corners and horizontal stripes of the same width. The shorts that I saw had an enlargened version the brand’s logo as the topstitching pattern, but I chose to keep my stitching purely geometrical and simple, with only rectangles and lines.
I love a really quick and simple style like the Lisboa Shorts because without too many details, I don’t mind spending a little extra time to sew the optional back welt pockets and it’s still a quick and easy style to sew. Welt pockets are one of my favorite details on shorts and trousers. I also added a faux fly like from this tutorial.
Because of the belt loops, you can wear this style with a belt and it’s both comfortable and classic looking. I know I’ll be wearing them a lot next summer because the fabric is lightweight and doesn’t wrinkle easily, and the neutral colors coordinate with virtually everything in my summer wardrobe. I like that the fabric is a subtle pattern because pattern and texture are my favorite ways to add interest to outfits.
Have you tried our Lisboa Walking Shorts? It’s available in paper and in digital format, it includes various lengths to suit your personal preferences, it doesn’t require very much fabric, and it’s rated one scissors for difficulty level, meaning it’s suitable if you’re learning to sew. I’ll show you another pair I made for myself, too, from knit fabric.
Love this idea ! Wondering if those shorts could be lengthened to make long trousers ?
You definitely could, but I always adjust the shaping of shorts to be a bit different from trousers. For a similar style, I would recommend our Montauk Trousers. I hope that helps!