[Cat75]

I am working on a pair of Soho shorts. It has gone together really well until now. I am trying to sew the waistband to the shorts but the front waistband is about 2 inches longer than the shorts. The back is perfectly fine. Now since there are pleats my first course of action was to look back at the pattern pieces to see if I did something wrong, but it looks like the pleats are where they are supposed to be. So whatever I did wrong I can’t figure out. All I can think of is maybe the center pleat is too large. The back of that pleat measures about 2.5 inches across. Any ideas?

Jennifer

[Liesl Gibson]

Hmmm. What size are you making, @cat75? I’ll take a look at the pattern and see if I can figure out what’s going wrong.

[Cat75]

Liesl, I am making a size 12.

[Liesl Gibson]

I think I see the problem. I’ll be back asap, ok? I’m just checking and double-checking…

[Liesl Gibson]

@cat75, as you suspected, the center pleat is the problem. It isn’t graded correctly, and I’m so sorry about that! I’m working on a solution to the problem, but in the meantime, if you want to restitch the pleat to be 2″ from the rise seam I think that should solve the problem. Will you report back to me and let me know if that works? I’m still investigating and checking all the sizes, so I’d love to hear if that fixes it. Again, my sincere apologies.

[Julia R.]

Just got my pattern in the mail and am excited to start. This always perplexes me: my waist is 33″ (size 14) and my hips are 38″ (size 6). Should i grade between sizes? It seems like a big jump.

[Cat75]

Liesl,
I changed the center pleat and that helped a lot. I still have about .5 inches extra, but that is probably user error. I have never sewn anything with a perfect seam allowance. I will scootch some of the pleats over a smidge and it will end up perfect.
Thanks so much for checking this. I was starting to feel a bit inept not knowing what I did wrong.
Jennifer

[Cat75]

Julia R. I think because of the loose nature of this below the waist you could just go with your waist measurements. I am not an expert by any means, so maybe someone more knowledgeable about fitting your body shape will chime in.
Jennifer

[Todd Gibson]

Liesl has corrected the problem with the pattern, and we’ve placed an errata notice on the website. It can be found here. Fortunately, it’s a simple issue to fix.

https://oliverands.com/liesl-and-co-patterns/OLV-LC017SS.html#tab-errata

The digital version of the pattern has been updated with this fix.

[Julia R.]

I ended up making the skirt, size 12, even though my waist calls for size 14. It still was too big and I had to take in an additional 1/2 inch. Am I measuring my waist incorrectly? I do like the finished product despite the alteration.

[Liesl Gibson]

@juliarhodes, did you check the finished measurements chart? That’s often the best way to determine which size you want to make, since it gives you the actual finished measurements which you can compare to your body and where you want the waistband to sit when it’s done. You might also want to compare it to other clothes that fit the way you like. Different people prefer different amounts of ease, so that’s one way to anticipate the finished garment. I hope that helps!

[Julia R.]

Thanks, @liesel, for your feedback. I would love to one day take a fitting class with you to understand fit and my body shape. I am wearing my skirt today!