Some summer shorts

So very recently a friend- after hearing me bang on about how I need to sew my kids some summer shorts but there's not enough hours in the day-made my son a very trendy pair of skater shorts:

Totally unbeknowst to me...she just rocked up with the completed shorts randomly one afternoon (as sewing friends are apt to do)!
How stoked was I and Cooper?
I addition to the shorts was a little folder containing a cut out pattern (in my son's size) and a good length of the camo fabric that the original shorts were made from. How.Totally.Awesome! Honestly now that I am a mum I soo appreciate these kinda things! No pattern cutting? Yippeee....
 In other words I pretty much had all I needed to make up plenty more:) 
No excuses!
Ok OK hint taken (but thanks for the kick up the bum hun !), I am ONTO this! 

Soo with pattern in hand -and a few of hubbies old button up shirts lying around (I wasn't too sure how I would go and was keen to "upcycle")- I crossed my fingers, got out "ye olde overlocker" and whipped up these shorts:

Two business shirt made these shorts- can you tell? #sodidnotpatternmatch

 I did add a little to length and the seam allowance all over (as insurance against my son's growth spurts), so these have a more "surfie board shorts" vibe than the original skater shorts pattern, but I am happy with that. Actually I LOVE both of the different looks this pattern has given! :)

This WAS a $50+ shirt (bought from a big name surf wear store). Very nice fabric, gorgeous hand, much prefer it as shorts for my little man :)

Why I LOVE reusing mens shirts; chest pockets easily become back pockets! Not quite convinced of the tension on that bottom hem though :(

 And on:

He picked this pose (I swear)!

Sorry Elle I don't (as yet, I will remedy this!) have any of your original [camo skater] pair being modelled.
In my defense: they ARE getting worn so much (often in the process of being washed or on the line) that usually the photo op is missed by the time I think of it! 
Will try and get a pic so everyone can see the difference in fit an extra 5/8" in seam allowance gives.
As to the pattern? It's a FREEBIE!!! You can find it here. Be aware that I ended up with the side seams of my legs not matching up exactly at the side seams- given that I did not really refer to the instructions this could be an "operator error". 
If this happens to you? No probs, just do what I do and cut a nice new (straight) bottom leg hem-equidistant from the crotch seam- on each leg.
A rotary cutter and quilting ruler makes this easy peasy :) 
If you only have shears I would pin the legs together after marking to make sure there's no distortion from lifting up the fabric to cut.

Until next time...

Happy [boys skater/boardie shorts] Sewing!

Kate xx

Tester dress (Sweet Simple dress)

My most recent sewing project :

 the Sweet Simple dress pattern by Alison Allsop.

 

This was thrown together in between my kids joint birthday party, Easter and various school holiday activities. I chose the fabrics myself which unfortunately Miss M didn't like (she is currently in a pink "phase" so anything blue must be her brothers) but a bit of lolly bribery encouragement on my part ensured that at least we got a shot of the dress ON- phew!

I think in future I might just let my kids pick out their own fabrics as it may be less stressful ;)

 

Check out Alison's Freshly Completed blog for loads of useful sewing tutorials and cute pics of her adorable children styling up the Sweet Simple dress (and other item's she has made)!

 

Happy Sewing!

Kate :)

 

...And even more shorts....

So in my last post I talked about the how the thrifted McCalls 9312 shorts pattern I used for my daughter has A LOT of built in ease.
Well it appears that there is a bonus to having a "roomy" pattern, especially when twins are in the house. 
With this pattern I was able to make shorts for my son -who is a whole two sizes bigger- without hardly any alterations (I did make the side seam allowance a tad smaller but in hindsight I needn't have bothered, a 5/8" seam allowance would worked fine).

Now I wasn't actually planning on making DS any shorts as he already has heaps, but he insisted that if sis was getting some....

He picked the spotty fabric himself. I know they look like pyjama pants but he loves wearing them out and about :D

I also used a some left over green stretch cotton I had to make another pair, with side pockets. The fabric is a fair bit thicker than quilting cotton (think thin stretch denim weight) so they do have a rather "boofy" look to them. 
Oh well live and learn....plus they are most likely to end up in the sandpit anyway ;)

Quite the poser eh?

So after making these shorts for DD and DS I have  decided to see if I could find or make a slightly more streamlined version. 
That is, to make them look more 2014 and less 1990's.

All the while still being elastic waisted in design, roomy enough to play in and not overly high cut in the leg. Not much to ask for right?

If I had any kind of pattern drafting training this would be easy peasy, but..... I'm not. So its been trial and error all the way ;)

Thus far I've had a play with the previously mentioned McCalls pattern - taking a bit off each side seam and lowering the waistband, plus I've found a freebie kids short pattern online that seems to have the right shape but is a tad too small, so am currently trying to grade it up a size or two.

Hanging out for the kids to be at school this week so I can cut out and sew what I've drawn up so far.

Til next time...

Happy Sewing!

Kate :)

...And more LuLu pics...

Ok this is the last of them I promise! Am currently trying to re-aquaint myself with the wonders of paint.net, this is the sum total of my efforts at 10pm at night:

This pic is my favourite:

Photo sessions with toddlers, always interesting!

More shots of the LuLu Dress

DD Millie during a day out in her new LuLu dress! (Taken on the iPhone so excuse the quality):

Who's that behind the door?

                   Pressing buttons on a (limited edition) Elvis jukebox: 

Let's check out what's going on outside:

 

What a fun dress! and what a great day- thankyou "Auntie" Amy for letting us visit!

Wow that was fun!

My Size 1 LuLu dress is finished and boy did I enjoy this one :D 

I put my hand up to be a pattern tester for Popolok Design and am so glad I did, I haven't had this much fun sewing up a project in ages.
This dress is beautifully easy to make and would be a very satisfying beginner sewing project for a new. Thanks to excellent drafting all the pieces line up darn near perfectly and the step-by-step instructions (with colour photos!) make assembling it a breeze.
With three different style variations and a size range from 1 to 8, you will find plenty of ways to use and adapt this pattern to whatever fashion pallette (or fabrics you have on hand) as your child grows.
I am so stoked that a fellow sewing blogger has released a pattern line. I have followed Alviana's blog for several years and honestly I dont know HOW she manages to do all that she does, what with working fulltime AND being a mother.. She is one very determined home sewing mama!

As I seem to have (hopefully) temporarily misplaced my camera I am relying on my iPhone for photography :(    
Here is a rather basic shot of the finished product on DD :
 

I am hoping for a much better photo-shoot once my camera turns up. 
In the meantime....

Happy Sewing!

New W.I.P - Lulu Block dress (Popolok design )

Recently Alviana from Popolok Design asked for testers for her latest children's pattern "The Lulu dress". 

I was one of the lucky facebook followers who put her hand up in time and now I am currently in the process of sewing up the "block" version of the Lulu dress.

Here's where I'm at right now:

As you can see I haven't strayed far from the original colour design. In fact freakily enough the yellow and aqua cotton drill seems almost a perfect match to the original. I say "freaky" because as far as I know my fabric was brought in Australia and I think Alviana would have gotten hers in Malaysia....

This is a fun pattern to make up, it goes together really easily and the choices for fabrics are endless. I'm really enjoying making this after the rush of Christmas sewing and just look at those colours- how can you not feel happy sewing with that. My scrap basket looks like a bubblegum flavoured icecream hee hee :D

Stay posted for more pics of the end product!

Kate :)

W.I.P: Dinosaur shirt

With Christmas looming in only a few short weeks I've been busy trying to finish off projects in time. 

One project I particularly want to get done is this dinosaur shirt for Cooper:

 

Like most little boys he is mad keen on dinosaurs, so when I saw this fabric at Spotlight I knew I had buy it.

It's been a long long time since I have sewn a shirt and this is only my third attempt at one, so the learning curve has been pretty steep! The collar in particular had to be re-cut, I had managed to trim off too much of the seam allowance along the neckline which made attaching it impossible!!

Still am slowly getting there, 10 or 20 minutes sewing here and there when the kiddies allow :) 

More Simplicity 5537 for Cooper

Here are a few pictures of the other shorts that I made from the Simplicity pattern for Cooper. As I was trying to knock these out pretty quick I decided to use my new Ikea pinking shears to finish the seams, with mixed results. Some fabrics behaved better than others when it came it not fraying after being pinked. All the shorts pictured have been worn and washed once only.

Camouflage print shorts

  

As the fabric was quite tightly woven they didn't fray too badly but I still decided to reinforce and zigzag the seams, as I think I trimmed the crotch seam a bit too heavily.

Skull and crossbone print AKA "Pirate " shorts

Fraying not too bad on side seam, just again had trimmed the crotch a bit too much.

Dino shorts-have now realized fabric is Chambray NOT denim :( 

Quite loosely woven and hence frayed like heck!

Even zigzagged over the side seams as I did not trust this not to fray more.

A cheap iron-on dinosaur decal I added. Has started to ball already so in future will look for FULLY WOVEN/ EMBROIDERED decals, NOT ones that use cheap felt for most of the colouring.

Shorts finished

 Here's a few photo's of Cooper in one pair of  the Simplicity 5537 shorts I made him.
 I must say the elephant print went down a real treat :

Oooooh whats that on the telly?

Posing and watching....

Ok mum over it now...are you finished?

Please excuse the shoddy phone pics - a 2.5 yr old sick toddler is hard enough to get a decent picture of at the best of times!
These shorts were extremly easy to put together - I will try to write up a review on sewing.patternreview.com soon :)