I’ve been saying I was going to make another Paper Theory Zadie foreeeevveeerrr. As with everything, it goes on a list and then I get to it at some point, either when I have a moment to spare OR when it totally jumps the queue for some reason. This was one of the latter occasions and it happened because I kept thinking I didn’t have a suitable fabric that was long enough (I’ve been really trying to stick to sewing from stash whenever possible for a while) and suddenly the lightning bolt struck me in the nonce and I thought, “It’s getting hot outside. Let’s take off all our clothes. Okay, not all our clothes, but maybe just the LEGS! Let’s make the Zadie with short legs AKA shorts!! Eureka!”.

Alright, so it’s not exactly invention of the century (and, indeed, Instagram has shown me other sewists were way ahead of me) but I am surprised that more people haven’t made a Zadie with shorts to be honest. One of the reasons I really love the Zadie is that I’ve discovered that I wear my first one, made in an airy double-gauze, everywhere when it’s warm (also in layers at other times of the year). It is the PERFECT holiday garment, because it’s light with good sun coverage, it has legs to stop your thighs swelling like balloons and chafing (if you don’t know what I mean, lucky old you), but it still looks modern and put-together. I love it.

The reason this one jumped the queue so spectacularly was that the idea of shorts and this perfect fabric hit my brain simultaneously and I was unable to focus on anything else for a while. I knew the Zadie was a pretty quick sew too, so I cut it out about 10pm on Wednesday night and here we are Friday morning with it finished. It probably took me just a few hours in total. The fabric is a Nani Iro Kokka 100% linen called Jardin I black, for obvious reasons, and it is, of course, beautiful, like everything this collab produces. I got it from Miss Matatabi and I used every bit of the 2.5m I had.

I wrote about the Zadie in detail when I made the first one, so I’m not going to repeat everything here, but just detail the few changes I made:

I made the 16 again and I’m happy with that. I’ve actually put on a bit of weight this year and was worried it might be snug, but it’s not at all. I didn’t make any alterations apart from at the back bum, which was still a bit baggier than I’d like on the last Zadie. This time I shortened the back crotch (only) by half an inch. I was tempted to tweak some other things, but I’m really trying to nail the fit on my low-flattish bum and I thought that might muddy the waters. It’s definitely better this time and I think with this style of garment it’s probably almost impossible to get a really tight-fitting bum.

The other alteration was, of course, to shorten the legs. I didn’t simply chop them off at the appropriate length though. Usually shorts have a little more width to them at the side seams – they don’t taper as a pair of trousers would. So I simply extended from the hip outwards to my new shorts length. I was slightly restricted by fabric width anyway, but that turned out to be about right.

Lengthwise, I measured my original Zadie and decided to add eight inches from the crotch, which would give me plenty of room to shorten. I added a two-inch hem, assuming one inch turned twice. When I tried them on, they were really pretty long, so I chopped off about three inches, meaning that overall the length of my shorts is five inches from the crotch point, plus a two inch hem allowance.

Last time I made the Zadie, I managed to chop into my jumpsuit when I was overlocking the binding right at the end, which was not cool. I managed to avoid that this time and it all went swimmingly. I briefly considered using a facing instead of bias tape, but I don’t mind bias too much, so I stuck with the same method.

The top of this one feels slightly looser than my first, even though they are exactly the same pattern pieces, but I highly suspect a couple of washes and that will tighten right up, so I’m not too worried.

And that’s about it! Not much else to say, except that it took me far too long to make another Zadie, and I have a feeling it won’t be my last, either. There’s a reason this pattern took over the sewing world a couple of years ago and, for me, it’s the perfect summer garment. Cheerio for now!