Retro Tiger Shorts

On a recent trip up to my parents’ house, Mum dug out a 1980s magazine from her sewing stash. Apparently back in those days, when sewing was more of a mainstream hobby, you bought this magazine/pattern book as the accompaniment to a BBC series, Weekend Wardrobe, which delivered tutorials on sewing up each garment. I’m going to keep my fingers and toes crossed that with the current rise in sustainability action and growing awareness of the enormous waste in fast-fashion, that sewing may once again become a massive deal and we will get shows like Weekend Wardrobe back on the telly. I can dream, can’t I?

I had a flick through, and there are some amusingly dated items – Princess Di-style blouse, anyone? To be fair, someone cooler than me could pull that off.

There was just one thing that I could genuinely picture myself wearing. A pair of high-waisted tailored shorts. As someone who basically believes their life would be complete if they could only recreate every look from Taylor Swift’s Blank Space music video, I immediately thought of these:

I bought cute monochrome tiger-stamped georgette from John Lewis and got started immediately. One lesson I learnt quickly is that people had smaller waists in 1982. I had to re-cut the waistband by a whopping 10cm, and loosen the seams, darts and pleats from the front and back panels to give myself breathing space.

It was a bit of a faff with lots of details to perfect – front and back pockets, pleats, fly-zipper, waistband. I added my own matching belt and belt loops. I bought a chunky brass buckle on Etsy and created a template to cover that in matching fabric too. That was particularly fiddly, using interfacing, double-sided sticky tape and lots of handstitching. But it is the care in these details that makes clothes special to me, so it was 100% worth it.

Unsurprisingly, I have not had any opportunities to wear them here in the UK yet; I am patiently waiting out the winter. But I took great pride in wearing them on holiday (honeymoon!) in New Zealand over Christmas. Comfy, flattering, versatile.


I even happened to wear them while visiting a white tiger at Singapore Zoo on the way home. A very sombre occasion, according to that face.