By Amy Mayen

I love to shop at Bad Granny’s Bazaar, in the arts district of Oklahoma City. It’s not a thrift store, not a craft show, and not a boutique…but somehow all three.

(My favorite booth there has lots of vintage fabrics & trims salvaged from estate sales. You’d die if I showed you some of the stash I’m hoarding. Like, if my house was burning I’d run to save my fabric…)

Forever ago, I picked up this crazy printed denim. It has very little stretch. I thought it was fabulously retro, and knew I had to have it. I waited very patiently for these prints to come back in style.

Now that Aztec symbology and Central American prints are trending, I knew I had to use this fabric right now,or sit on it for another 20 years.

I decided to use it to make these pleated shorts using McCalls 6391. (Bottom right, purple.)

They have a pleated front, buttoned flap pockets, a set in zip fly, and cuffed hems. Don’t scoff at pleated front pants. I saw them all over the runway. Like em’ or not, here they come.

The pattern is marked “easy”. I had a little trouble with the zip fly. When I see “easy” I think “beginner”. What it should’ve said was, “easy for someone smarter than you.”

Also, the instructions were very vague throughout the entire process. Easy means spell it out for me. It wasn’t super hard, but it required thinking. Which I don’t like to do without proper warning.

The pattern runs way long, even on the shorter version. I had to cut off about 5 inches before hemming.

There is some weirdness here- I think this could be eliminated by going down a size in the crotch area. I read another review of this pattern that said they had fit issues here too. (It made me feel better, Im not the only one.)

I had this great 90s fabric, so I used this pattern that has a pleated front and flat back-also very 90s. In hindsight, I would have used this fabric to make a flat front pair of shorts with belt loops and back pockets. See how the cool pockets just get lost?

I think I killed this project by doing too much. This fabric is amazing, bold, and busy. It’s too busy to be paired with a complicated design. A clean, streamlined, modern design will serve better.

This buttonhole is sexy. I just forgot to trim it.

I might try this pattern again. I wasn’t really thrilled with it, but I saw a photo of these shorts made with piping around the pockets. The front tucks were changed to darts, creating a flat front. I owe this pattern one more shot before I pass them to someone else.

This photo came from AmericanSewingGuild.blogspot.com. I don’t see any recent posts, but I’m dying for them to get back to blogging. I saw some great projects!

Thank goodness I still have enough fabric left to make another pair! Maybe a version 2.0. Before summer?!

In case you were wondering, I cut this off a table linen & sewed it to the front of a Wal-Mart tank top.