75% Wrong Shorts

 I don't like wearing white...or brown...and I don't like the idea of printed plaid on wovens in general, as much as I do love plaid.

But I do love plaid.

I'd had some "almost black but nope look closer! it's dark brown" and white sturdy cotton printed glen plaid for ages.  It had been set aside to be donated, but I decided to keep it and make an effort to use it.  I thought maybe I'd make a bias-cut A-line skirt but decided instead to use this not-quite-my-style fabric to make a test version of Butterick 4703 in a non-stretch fabric to see how it fits.

I know I could have been a lot more casual in how I cut and constructed this, but...I wasn't.  So!  Pattern matching it is!

They went together fairly quickly--it helped that I didn't have to pick out and re-sew any seams due to the patterns mismatching horribly.

Not saying the pattern matching is perfect, just that it's good enough.  I guess it did help that I cut each piece separately, instead of on the fold.

The waistband wandered out of alignment somewhere and the belt loops ended up asymmetrically placed.  Not letting it bother me.

I used a dark green zipper that was probably salvaged from something, since it had no top or bottom stops and was just the right length for a pants zipper.

As usual, I pressed the hem seam allowances while everything was flat, then unrolled them while sewing the side seams.

The side seam pattern ended up repeating on each side of the seam, but I don't feel like that's as egregious in a plaid print as it is in any other kind of print.

I also bound the side seam and inseam allowances with narrow bias tape, so it would look nice if I turned the hems up.  I am now out of bias tape this small--it came from taking pre-gathered trim apart.  A tiny bias tape maker may be in my future.

I made the conscious decision not to worry about pattern matching on the yoke seam, because I'm not good at calculating bias.

And then they almost aligned anyway.

As mentioned, my goal for this wasn't super high quality, and I think it definitely passes the "no-one should be looking that closely anyway" standard.

Of course, the big question is about the fit.  It's...well, there are drag lines, once it gets wiggled around enough to be zipped, but the back fit is OK?  I did reference my previous version of these and take out 5/8" at the top center back while cutting and that worked out.  I should probably do a full abdomen adjustment, because I don't feel like it's that bad overall.  (It'd probably fit better before dinner, too.)  It was cut in size 16, and that's all the larger the pattern goes, so anything larger would need alterations anyway.

I did just have the thought about letting the side seams out a bit, tapering away from the waistband and hems.  Maybe?  Maybe. [Edit: I did--the drag lines are still there but not as deep as before.  Even after dinner.]

Would I ever actually wear them?  Also, surprisingly, a 'maybe?'