How to make self-drafted elastic waist circle shorts/ cullottes

So these are really the same as this pair I made years ago but with an elastic waist, because I need to have clothing with elastic waists for my impending operation.

I am trying to make a few wearable items that will not be too un-stylish. I will after all have to wear this kind of clothing for at least 6 weeks and do not want to be stuck in track pants that whole time.

These are really simple.  They are 4 quarter circles made with the waist part big enough to go over your hips.

A rectangular waistband to hold some 1 inch wide elastic makes the waistband wide enough to go over the hips and pull on easily.

If you use one of the online circle skirt templates here https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=mood+circle+skirt+template&qpvt=mood+circle+skirt+template&FORM=IGRE


and the crotch shaping from any pair of trousers then that is how to make these. You can even draw round an existing pair of trousers to get the crotch shaping for this because it does not need to be super accurate since you want an unfitted style. My fronts and backs are also identical so a very easy pattern is used here.



Here is a quick diagram - its not to scale and just a sketch but should give a good idea what you need to do. You will need to be more accurate with the length than my drawing is but this is as I said just a  sketch. Fold your fabric into 4. You can either make a paper pattern or you can use chalk to draw straight onto the fabric. Some of the links I gave above also have downloadable templates you can just use as the waist pattern and then measure down to get the desired length.  If you measure regularly all the way round from the waist circle you can make the hem the same length all the way round quite easily. You cut 4 of these tho I suppose you could omit the side seams and cut on a  fold in which case you will only cut 2. Mine are 53cm long so about 51cm after hemming because I overlocked the edge and just sewed a single hem. the fabric is a thin cotton intended for curtains. Its surprisingly wearable. I came across most of a roll of this a couple of years ago and am using it not as curtains ( not really my style) but for my muslins because its actually quite nice cotton and does not feel too bad to wear. Its a good way to trial patterns as well if you come across something like this. Its 100% cotton and is poplin weight or dress fabric weight - and very cheap and because I have probably about 30m of it it allows me to try things out and make a second version etc and end up with a wearable muslin. I made the original trial of my self drafted Street Sweeper copy of The Vampires Wife dress with this fabric.

 

To sew up I sewed side seams first to make two legs then sewed the crotch seam and then added the waistband and hemmed. 

I pinned carefully for the hem because its a circle and tends to wrinkle if you do not pin first. Its a pain because of the length of hem and this is a big circle, but well worth the extra effort pinning it. 

Finally I added the elastic inside the waistband channel. Of course you could add this first and then stitch it firmly in place but personally I intend to wear these when I am sick and recovering from a hip replacement it was not worth the bother of stretching and sewing in place etc. I seem to nearly always break a needle when stretching elastic waistbands and just could nto be bothered when making these. I will probably recycle afterward my operation because I prefer to have less fabric in my waist. They do work well though even though I am not mad about the fabric.

And of course if you make a waist band to fit you you can have a non-elastic waist like the first pair I made. You just cut the waist size to fit your waist and not to go over your hips and follow the directions to make it as long as you wish.

I made these yellow culottes so long ago - right at the start of my sewing adventure. They are really why I blog. I put them on the burdastyle.com website and later they got pinned all over the place which inspired me to start to sew more and blog about it. 

So here are the photos of these shorts / culottes:

All in all I think these are OK and they are wearable despite the curtain fabric and being self drafted with no actual pattern and I expect they will make me slightly less frumpy when I ahve to wear elastic waisted clothing for 6 whole weeks!

Bracken