Cavallos Leggings - From Leggings to Shorts

Guest Post By Mary Cheddie

Have you seen the new Greenstyle Cavallo leggings? They are so cool as they have no inseam – no seam on your inner thigh. Yep, that’s right – a miracle!

The leggings were inspired for horse riding as that seam on your inner thigh can rub and be oh so uncomfortable. I was fortunate to be able to test these new leggings for Greenstyle and knew I needed these as shorts! Living in SW Florida, I live in shorts more so than leggings.

One would think that making the Cavallo’s as shorts would be a bit more tricky. Since there is no inseam, you are not able to just start by deciding your length, you need to look at this from a different perspective. The “side seam-ish” is a panel with an optional slant or scoop pocket and the panel does not create a “straight” side seam – it has some beautiful architecture to it. When converting the pattern to shorts, I wanted to keep the beautiful curves of the side panel and pocket. All in all, this is a very simple method to convert your leggings pattern into shorts.

During testing I made two pairs of Cavallo leggings and I love them both. The pattern is so well drafted by Angelyn Bennett that all testers had immense success! Kudos to Angie for another fabulous pattern!

GS Moss supplex and navy supplex      Cherry red supplex

Starting with my GS Moss and navy supplex leggings, I measured to above my knee. I like my shorts long and find that they move less at when at this length. (Nothing worse than doing a workout and the need to fidget with your shorts). I also was watching where the bottom of the pocket/side panel ended as I did not want my shorts to pass this point.

Step 1. On the pattern, I drew a line across the legging bottom from the front bottom of pocket to the back bottom of pocket. This became my baseline for the bottom.

Step 2. Draw lines above the “baseline for the bottom” in one-inch increments (see hash marks for A (10”), B (9”), C (8”), and D (7”) on the pic below). I determined that the baseline was approximately an 11” inseam length. Knowing I like shorts anywhere from 7” to 10”, I marked the lines above the “baseline” for 7”, 8”, 9”, and 10”.

Step 3. I decided my shorts would have a 10” inseam and proceeded to use this line for the bottom. This is the step where you will also reduce the length of your side panel and pocket. Since I was only removing 1” from the baseline, I also removed 1” from the bottom tip of the side panel and 1” from the bottom tip of the pocket. Next, I laid out the pattern on my fabric and cut it out. I used the GS navy supplex (divine)!

Step 4. Sew the pattern following the instructions. I top stitch after each seam and I always use ¼” to 3/8” elastic in the upper part of the waistband. My shorts are not going anywhere!

Step 5. Wear and LOVE!

Share pics of your Cavallo shorts in the GreenstyleCreations Facebook page! I can’t wait to see what you make!