short, shorts, shorts (and one pair of long pants)

When I made her a birthday dress that I was pretty sure she wouldn't wear I also made three pairs of shorts.

That was ages ago but I finally pinned her down for some photos.

The idea of shorts wasn't a surprise and we went through some pattern ideas together, but then I picked the fabrics and sewed them up in secret.

This first pair is pattern 19/20 (I can't see any difference between the two patterns, it could be one or either of those!) from this book which my translate app calls "Handmade Summer Style"

The fabric is the very last of some unicorn chambray from spotlight that had already yielded a dress and a pair of shorts.

These are simple elastic waisted super-voluminous shorts. She was keen on the shorts like a skirt idea, almost tempting me to try a pair of longer culottes again (they've always been meet with a firm no in the past).

There are patch pockets at the back and inseam pockets at the front. I pulled up my own photographed tutorial to remind myself of how to do inseam sides pockets and still get the seam allowances to lie flat. It's from a different Japanese pattern book and works really well.

These are size 150 and look like they'll fit forever! I was so afraid of her having grown out of Japanese patterns but perhaps I need not have been :)

Also from the same book is pattern 15. These ones can be made with a bib and straps like overall shorts, or just as the shorts.

These are my favourites, they're a bit big, but still have a really nice shape. The inner waistband and the legs are finished with facings, so I used a lighter weight cotton for that.

Given that the shorts are denim and heavyish, I also split the pocket piece and created a pocket facing in denim, but the main pocket bag is also shirting cotton. That way the pockets won't take forever to dry in the wash.

Not yet a problem as these ones haven't been worn...

The third pair of shorts and her favourites by far are another pair of Oliver + S Class picnic shorts.

If these look familiar it's because I used the same three coloured denims to make the same pattern last summer. The order of the fabrics is swapped about just to make use of what I had left. these are size 10, same as the recent school shorts. Hopefully they'll last longer!

As you can see, this pair have been washed and worn and washed again...

finally, a bit of a flop, but worth documenting all the same.

I tried the Eleanor jeans by Jalie. They're a fitted pull on jeans. I made these with a stretch bengaline kind of fabrics.

I've made size O according to her measurements which should have had the waist being a bit snug if anything. Turns out the waistband was too big and the rise too short so they constantly feel like they're falling down.

It's maybe not helped by them being very long in the leg and needing to be rolled up. I think they're really promising though...

I'll try and revisit them at some stage, add length to the front and back rise so they come up to her waist and then make the waistband snug enough that they feel secure. I have a few cuts of jegging denim that I'm sure she'd love if I can get the fit right.

Meanwhile I've just done a dart and tuck that has butchered the back of these ones but make them almost wearable when desperate for clean, long pants.

She also scored a birthday bag from fabric that I'd bought for her back when she was about two, but we haven't taken nice pictures of that yet.

Arguably I should be able to photograph and blog about everything since there's not much else we can do right now. But I'm a bit lacking in mojo.

What I am enjoying is crocheting a couple of budgerigars. Seriously. I think they're going to be very cute. We had a pair land in our backyard when our neighbours were packing up their aviary and  moving out. I managed to catch them and we went door knocking until we found where they'd come from. Of course by then, the kids were convinced we should keep them and when I explained we couldn't, A went and found my crochet birds book and insisted I make her a pair of budgerigars.

That's the kind of order I like!

Sew Japanese - Unicorn Bubble Shorts

My last bit of Japanese pattern sewing that happened in January was another pair of the bubble shorts (pattern "S" Girl's Sassy Clothes by Yuki Araki).

This is a gorgeous little pattern that I'd first made back in 2013 in the smallest size, size 90cm. Jump ahead a few years and I was up to the largest size, size 130cm

The first ones had been made in a lightweight denim chambray:

And they were ridiculously cute!

The weight of the unicorn chambray leftovers (from this dress) reminded me of those shorts and so I jumped in to make another pair.

These ones were created entirely from the stash and so I made do with a bit of navy flat cord for the pocket drawstrings.

It turned out I even had the pattern already traced in the largest size. It's essentially the same pattern as the base for the skort which I've made here, here and as shorts here. The navy shorts and the Nani Iro skort were the size 130, so I was ready to cut straight away.

They're not the quickest shorts due to all the gathering and binding, but they come together very nicely and they're super cute.

I'm feeling very virtuous with all this stash sewing. I've managed to completely use up a good few cuts of long stashed fabric and only added two new pieces of fabric thus far. So long as I'm ahead in the out vs in then I feel like I'm winning. 

Details:

Pattern: Shorts: "S" from this book

Size: 130cm

Mods: none

Fabric: printed lightweight denim chambray from Spotlight (via stash)

T-shirt: Oliver + S School bus from back here

Sew Japanese in January - my turn

Having made a few Japanese pattern garments for A during January, I saw the invitation from Blogless Anna and Crafty Jane for a social end of the month catch up.

Of course, I felt the need to make something for me, and I knew I wanted a pair of culottes in the leftover linen. Did I have a Japanese pattern?...

Well, it turned out I did. Nearly all the Japanese sewing pattern books for women that I own came from a local second hand Japanese language bookshop (I know, I used to have one of those at the end of the street, cool huh) when it closed down.

Sadly, sewing books weren't their strong point, and while they had lots of those Stitch Idees embroidery magazines that I love, most of the sewing books were circa 1988. Think floral, drop waisted dresses with low hemlines, long sleeves and huge, white peter pan collars. Of course I took them all, so if you ever need to dress up like a Japanese version of Lady Di then I've got your pattern!

The one, beautiful book I have came as a gift from the lovely Emi, and it's a Dress Style Book which has you drafting every dress you want from a basic block. No culottes and too much work for my end of the month deadline.

Thumbing through the older books I found one that might be as recent as the early nineties:

In there I found this pattern for matching jacket and culottes. Mmmm mmmmm. :)

Eventually I found the sizing information on the pattern sheet and cut the second largest size. I could just fit it all on the remnant of linen. Yay!.

Well, I say I cut it all. But I couldn't cut the waistband or the fly shield as I couldn't find any pattern pieces for either of those. I used that funny Google phone camera app for some translations as the jacket and the culottes pieces were all marked on the cutting layout and it was hard to be sure what was what. It's not a super helpful app as sewing terms are somewhat beyond it, but it got me as far as realising there were no pattern pieces for those parts.

I figured I could sew the pants then just cut a waistband to fit, and for the fly shield I just winged it with a rectangle that was similar to the Hollywood Trouser pattern. In fact, I pulled that pattern out and used it for the pocket technique and the fly construction as there were close to no instructions for the culottes.

The pattern suggested belt loops but I left them off. I couldn't quite make out what was meant to happen at the gather/pleat points on the front and back of the shorts. I just gathered these sections to about as small as I comfortably could and then cut the waistband to fit the raw edge. Zoom in on that button, it's a perfect match!

The linen is every bit as soft and swishy as it looked when A was wearing her culottes and they feel fantastic to wear. And of course, being shorts, you can do everything in them!

The back shorts are cut more on the bias than the front shorts and they have a very skirt-y feel to them.

Dinner in the city with 17 other Japanese sewing book or fabric enthusiasts was wonderful. I wore my culottes with this same top - the upper half of the Vogue Guy Laroche (V1339) dress seen here.

I've worn them quite a few times since. I don't have many pairs of shorts as, while they're very practical, they're not something I've ever felt particularly suited to. But these skirty-shorts feel good.

It amused me to have a photoshoot at the end of the back lane by this purple wall as it just happened that the Instagram posts of P's pants and A's culottes were against the same wall and they were neatly aligned in my feed. Curating your Instagram feed is a serious thing and you gotta know I'm all over that level of blogging (heavy sarcasm font).

But more importantly, you get to steal figs from that tree down the lane...

And the kiddo modelled her new birthday dress for me. More to come later on that one, but I can't help but share this photo of the two of us (almost photobombed by a brother on a bike)

Tween top and culottes - More Japanese sewing

I knew I needed to make more school shorts for A and I thought she might go for a Japanese Sewing pattern for culottes. Especially if I sweetened the deal with a tween style off the shoulder top. Plus, I got to double up on the Sew Japanese in January challenge

To keep things fun I made the culottes in some linen first, with a regular school navy pair to follow later.

The culottes are from Sunny Spot (review and book details here) which I think will get a lot of use as the sizes go all the way up to 150cm.

I've made the size 130cm and they are very generous in length. I think she'll be wearing them for years to come.

With a little help from a cross wind, you can see that there is a wrap around skirt effect at the front, with a pair of wide leg shorts underneath. The pattern suggests a nice leather buckle closure for the skirt flap, a bit like a kilt, but since these were going to get heaps of wash and wear action I left that off.

The skirt flap is sewn into the right side seam and the finish at the hem is not quite as neat as it could be since you have to hem the skirt and shorts first, then sew the side seam. I kept thinking of a way around that, but couldn't come up with a better one...

What I loved though were the instructions for the pocket in the left side seam. It's an in seam pocket which we've all sewn before, but this pattern book has really clever instructions for how to get the pocket to stay facing forward and not flop around, and to have all the seam allowances of the pocket lying flat in one direction and the side seam allowances still able to be pressed open. It's the best way I've seen to do in seam pockets yet. Remind me to do it like that in all patterns.

The culottes fabric is a lovely linen that came from Eliza's years ago and while it's ostensibly grey and beige it has this glorious pearlescent sheen. I was more than a bit jealous of these shorts and instantly cut myself a pair of culottes from the leftovers of the same fabric (yet to be photographed but worn plenty).

The blouse is from a different pattern book, and another one that is new to me and will get heaps of use (This book - translated as Fashionable Clothes For Girls). Also a straight size 130cm with no mods.

It's a raglan T-shirt with exposed shoulders which makes for a very curious sleeve pattern piece. The construction was all lovely with only the hems having me baffled. The centre seam and thus the centre hems of the ties is 1cm, yet the bottom hem is 2cm. Where they meet at the points it threw me trying to mitre a hem corner with uneven hem allowances. Also, while the bottom front hem is turned up by 2cm, the instructions have you stitch it at 7mm (the same as the centre front). I think it would work fine to just do a 1cm hem at the front lower edge and keep it all simple. As it is I just have to iron my free edge hem allowances to make them behave.

The first time she put it on and completely missed the sleeves was a bit comical. I half panicked thinking it didn't fit at all, but then realised the mistake.

The fabric for the top is a lightweight shot cotton that I bought from Urban Sew quite some years ago. It's only very subtle in the contrast weave with a light green and an off white warp thread. It doesn't have the classic shot cotton colour change, just more of a slight marle effect. Happily the top was exactly the cut of fabric, so it's another stashed piece of fabric ticked off with no leftovers. Super satisfying.

I think this top would look great with the multicoloured Class Picnic Shorts too, but the kid obviously thinks of this combination as "an outfit" and reaches for them both together very often. I'm not complaining, it's pretty easy on the eyes. :)

We just need to remember to go heavy on the sunscreen.

Japanese Jumpsuit

Welcome back. We have a new PC and finally I can catch up with what happened, sewing-wise, in January.

I started the year by joining in with Sew Japanese In January (An Instagram challenge which is exactly what it sounds like) and made a pattern I'd long wanted to make....

….only, I made it in a fabric I never wanted to use. :)

This little rompersuit comes from one of my Heartwarming Life books by designer Yuki Araki ("Let's Go Out Girl's Clothes"), the sizing only goes up to 130cm so I was mindful that it was this summer or never.

I added 2 inches length to the bottom of the blouse panels and 1 inch height to the top of the shorts panels. She has a long torso and there's nothing worse than a jumpsuit wedgie, right?

Here's how cute the jumpsuit looks in the book when made with a tasteful double gauze (or is it washed linen?):

So what on earth possessed me to start the year sewing with purple, floral seersucker? I could definitely blame the heatwave, or too many G&Ts... But I guess I'm just mindful that I really need to use the fabric that I have on hand, and while I would have happily re-gifted or tossed this particular fabric (it was gifted to me, I sure as hell didn't buy it :) ), I knew A would love it. And she does. Sigh.

The matching hairband and scrunchies were made in an attempt to use it up, but I'm afraid to say there is at least a skirt's worth left. I have to confess, though, that it has softened up nicely in the wash and I imagine it's actually pretty nice to wear. 

The pattern's details are lost somewhat in the print, but the bodice has some pintucks on each side, three little centre buttons and then there are some of those cute, but useless pocket flaps in the shorts/waistband seam.

It's the perfect rollerskating outfit!

Even though that makes it really hard to stand still for photos, and too blurry for roll-by shootings...

I may have become a little confused about which pattern pieces were the top of the bodice, and which were the waistband and which were the facings for those two parts.... I recall doing a bit of gathering or stretching to fit, which probably meant I was sewing the wrong thing at the place, but since it's then gathered with elastic at the top and waist it hardly seemed to matter.

She's really keen for me to make her more jumpsuits and use elastic in gathered tubes at the shoulders rather than the ties which are a bit toilet-break-fiddly. Really the bodice is only a rectangle so upsizing or drafting a bodice onto a pair of shorts shouldn't be hard once this pattern is outgrown.

Some years ago I started my first blog post of the year with the title "Start as you don't intend to continue" and it was the first garment I ever made for me. Well I've gone on to sew pretty much all of my own wardrobe since then, so that was a poor premonition.

I hate to say it in this post in case I jinx myself, and I have NO desire to continue with purple, floral seersucker. I promise there's plenty of beige, brown, neutrals and linen coming up soon. Stick around :)

Catching up and cotton sewing

Oh my. The year is fast disappearing and I have quiet a few projects that need to land on the blog before the year is out.

When I was meant to be sewing my Frocktails dress, I realised A was about to have her school sleepover and didn't have any pyjamas that fit her in a way that looked acceptable. Of course she had pyjamas that were perfectly comfortable to wear, but the legs were up around her knees... Time for something new.

Years ago I made her some pyjamas from a Japanese Sewing book called Girl's Life, and she had been super keen on the nightie. It was only in the bigger sizes, and so she had to wait.

Here it is in the smallest size (130cm). It's a good fit, although I could lower the armscye opening a little. The way to attach the trim at the sleeve confused me (again) and I studied the previous white pyjamas to try and get my head around it. It's very neat once you figure it out! I also found the plan for the pintucks confusing, again. It would be so much easier if they were marked on the pattern. It wastes lots of fabric to pleat first then cut, but if you cut first you need all those little dart legs for every pleat.

She's happy with it. The fabric was a deep stashed quilting cotton and I was glad to finally use it up. The yellow trim matches the tiny yellow centres on each pinwheel. Yes, I sewed ric rac into something. Shoot me now, right. I can't stand the stuff as a rule. But this did need something and I didn't have any lace of a good shade of blue.

I threw in the chain stitched monogram and it was done, just in time for the sleepover. She promptly had a horrendous blood nose that night, and then as soon as it was washed, she cartwheeled in it and tore one of the armholes. That's repaired and it's back in rotation. Thank heavens for my rule of photos first.

The other bit of cotton sewing I did was to make Sal's version of the Tessuti Felicia Pinafore dress (first one here). Sal tried on mine and declared she loved it just as it was. I bit my tongue and tried not to point out what I saw as flaws in drape and shape..

So I made it exactly the same, which was super easy. This one I seemed to have a tiny bit more fabric and wouldn't have needed the minor bodice and skirt shortening, but I did them anyway so it would be as per the one she tried on. This fabric is also a cool print from Nerida Hansen. (link in previous blog post).

And she got one of Kylie and the Machine's awesome labels. Cause it's true: Sewing is the F'ing Best. I've passed on the pattern to her and hopefully she can make many, many more!