So swishy! – McCalls M7131

A review of McCalls Shorts and Trousers M7131

Reviewed by nightingaleanddolittle on 9th September, 2020

This is a great pattern if you want some very swishy and super comfy shorts/culottes/trousers!

The instructions are fairly standard for a commercial pattern – they’re concise and don’t hold your hand too much, but I found them easy to follow and didn’t have any problems sewing my culottes. The only change I made to the pattern was to use one piece of 1.5″ wide elastic in the back waistband instead of sewing channels for four pieces of narrow elastic.

I would definitely recommend using the finished garment measurements (printed on the actual pattern pieces) to choose what size to make as there’s quite a bit of positive ease built into the pattern (I think there’s 3 extra inches at the waist). My measurements put me in an 18, but I made a 16 and used slightly shorter elastic than recommended and they fit me nicely. The 18 would have been far too loose at the waist.

There are more details and photos in my blog post here: http://nightingaleanddolittle.blogspot.com/2020/09/mccalls-7131-culottes.html