We have so many cute new shorts patterns available for this spring and summer! (And even more on the way.) We recently had some questions about the "rise" of our shorts patterns so today we're going to talk about what that means, why we do what we do, and how you can make adjustments if you want to.
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First of all, the "rise" is the distance from the bottom curve of the shorts to the top of the shorts, as shown in red in the picture below. Shorts sometimes have a higher rise in back than in front, to give more room for the bootie. We do have CKC patterns like this such as Kelsey's, Libby's, Quinn's, Patrick's, and most of the Tweens' patterns. But there are also times when we decide that it is better to make the front and the back of the shorts share the same pattern piece with equal rise so you don't have to print as many pages. It also makes the cutting process quicker. On patterns such as bubble shorts and loose-fitting pants it is completely fine to have the rise the same in the front and back. We test all of our patterns in every size and if we feel the need to change the rise then we do. We make sure the pieces are perfect before we release them! So we are confident that you will be happy with your CKC shorts patterns as they are written.
If you do want to make adjustments for your child, we are happy to help you achieve that too. We have done a blog post here on how to adjust the rise if it is too high for your child. And now I'm going to show you how to adjust the rise if you want the front rise to be shorter than the back.
To start out we will cut and sew our pieces as instructed in our chosen pattern and get to this point shown above, having sewn along the red lines. We are now ready to adjust the front rise.
With the shorts pieces laying flat, find the center along the top and mark it with a pin as shown above.
Now on one of the sides (whichever we choose to be our front) we will measure down 1.5" along the side edge and make a mark. My mark is blue in the center of the circle above.
Note: I am making a size 7/8. For sizes smaller than 4T you may want to do 1" or less. If you want to know the exact difference for your child, you can measure on them from center front to waistline and center back to waistline, and then subtract for the difference. This number is how far you want to measure down for the side mark.
Now we will use a ruler to draw a straight line from the edge where our center pin is to the side edge where our mark is, as shown above.
Now we will cut that line.
Turn the shorts so the seams run down the center front and center back. We can see that our front rise is lower than our back rise, just like we wanted! Now we can continue on with the rest of the pattern as it is written. It really is that simple! Your rise is now adjusted.
As you can see, we still fold the casing exactly the same way. I was a little nervous the first time I did this but it turns out the same, just slightly curved when you get to the front.
And there we have it. Totally cute! As I mentioned earlier, tweens tend to like having a lower rise in front. Your child may too. But for the most part you can count on the designers at CKC to decide whether a pattern is just as fantastic with both pieces the same, so we can all cut down on the pieces we need to print. (We can take all the money we save on paper/ink and buy more fabric!)
Let's Create! ~ Kristen
