By now, I’m sure you’ve realized that not only are the Dixie DIY Movies In The Park Shorts a super cute pattern, they’re a lot of fun to make as well!
If you are finishing up your shorts, we thought that you might enjoy a post on finishing details.
The waistband yoke is interfaced and of course there are 2 layers of fabric, so sewing in a buttonhole is not an issue. The lower portion of the shorts is just 1 single layer of fabric, so we need to add a layer of interfacing in order for our buttonholes to have some body. I like to use a woven cotton fusible interfacing for projects like this. Simply cut a strip of interfacing approximately 2″ wide and a little longer than the pocket opening. Look closely at the picture below and you’ll see that I rounded off 1 edge of the facing. This is not necessary, but it does make for a smoother finish. I also like to push the edge of the interfacing under the facing and tuck it under the edge of my bias edge. Once this is done, simply press in place. If your fabric is rather lightweight, you may want to add a second layer of interfacing.
Now to decide button placement. There will be 1 button in the center of the waistband yoke. Since I am only attaching 3 buttons on either side, I want to evenly space my buttons inside the pocket area.
The typical rule of thumb for where the button hole should be placed is 1/2 the size of the button plus 1/2″. So if you are using a 1″ button, half the size of the button is 1/2″. Add 1/2″ and the buttonhole should be 1″ away from the edge of the garment. This rule worked out well for the placement of my buttonholes. The bias edge is approximately 1/2″. So I measured over a little less than 1/2″ from the edge of my bias strip and marked this as the beginning of my button hole. My buttons are 7/8″ wide, so I measured over 7/8″ from my first pin and then placed the second pin. This will be the length of my buttonholes. The center pin marks the center of the buttonhole. Note that I elected to sew my buttonholes in horizontally rather than vertically. The reason for this is that when I sit, if the buttonholes were sewn in vertically, they may pull open and the button could pop out.
Just as an example, I placed the shank of the button on the end pin. You can see that the button will look nice along the edge of the shorts and not look too close to the edge.
But had I moved the edge of the buttonhole over a little farther, then it would look as though it is too close to the edge.
Once the buttonholes have been sewn in, try on the shorts and pin them together to determine the placement of the buttons as well as where the edge stitching should be in order to hold the shorts together. I started my edge stitching at the top edge of the pocket opening.
And finished it where the back and the front meet at the lower leg.
I found that my waistband yoke would move around a bit and I found that to be a little annoying.
The issue is easily fixed by sewing in a few snaps. As you can see, 2 sets of snaps were sewn to the top edge of the waistband yoke.
The top of the waistband yoke is securely held in place. All that’s left to do is slip my shorts on and enjoy wearing them, Now to find a movie in the park!!!
I hope you’ve enjoyed making your shorts.
Thanks so much for sewing along with me.
Rhonda Buss
