Sunshine Finch Shorts

I was rummaging around in my daughter's drawers the other day and discovered that her wool Finch shorts (from back here) had resized themselves to about right for an 18" doll.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with our laundry systems, but there you go. Weird how wool garments sometimes shrink so dramatically when no one is looking. ;)

I had the pattern traced off in her size, so why not make another pair?

Have I mentioned already how I'm on a kick to use up small bits of fabric and leave nothing behind? Yes, I know I have, but I'm serious about it and so I set to, trying to get the shorts to fit on the remnants of this retro floral fabric (used here).

I barely made it. The cuff facings on the insides of the legs is a spotted cotton but since it never shows that was an ok cheat.

Thankfully I'd kept the placket that I'd cut for the dress then not liked the print placement. It turned out to be exactly the right length and width for the front belt tab. Without having kept that scrap I would have fallen short. - on my shorts :)

I'm yet to make the little top that goes with these shorts but I know A would love it. The shorts are a great pattern, such a cute shape and a delight to sew.

Today had a distinct chill in the air and I'm starting to get excited about Autumn sewing. Yet we're off to the beach after Easter so I've been plunging back into the second chapter of the Summer Swimwear Sewathon. I love winter dressing but I'm enjoying the summer sewing too much to stop. I even busted out that Badminton top pattern and ticked it off my list from the last blog post.

Details:
Pattern: Clever Charlotte Finch Shorts
Size: 6 - no modifications
Fabric: Vintage cotton from my friend's mum's cleanout.
Notions: buttons from Buttonmania back room sale

Forest Path and Finch - more winter sewing

I am absolutely over winter weather. It's officially spring but we've been having some seriously arctic winds and plenty of squalls of rain and hail recently. Enough already!

I'm hoping this was the last of my winter sewing completed...

I had lots of projects to do in June/July, then had an enforced "week off" from sewing. Of course that turned into about three days of tidiness and inactivity, and then I couldn't help myself and went on a big tracing and cutting binge. The end result was this huge pile of cut out projects:

There was P's jacket and undervest, A's impossible jacket, my Lisette coat , a top secret project for me and then this cape for A. All are now finished, and as I said, I am over winter sewing!

The cape is the ever so cute Forest Path Cape by Oliver + S, and if you know the pattern you might have already spotted the alteration: I added a collar.

Previously I made a size 4 cape and I love it, but I always thought it might look better with a collar or a hood. Having just recently made the Sunday Brunch jacket with its darling little mandarin collar I wondered if that collar would fit the cape. It does. Perfectly!

I made the size 6 cape and used the size 6 Sunday Brunch collar and didn't need to do a thing else. Just sewed the collar in before attaching the facing for the cape. Easy! I added a hanging loop and a cute bit of Daiso adhesive cotton tape as a label. By stitching the label on through all layers it also helps to keep the facing in place.

The lining is the lining that I picked up at The Fabric Store when I was searching for lining for my Lisette coat. I loved it,. but there wasn't enough left on the bolt for my coat. It came home with me anyway with no particular project in mind and turned out to be perfect for this cape.

The outer wool is that same double wool that was P's School Days Coat. It is all finished now and I think three garments out of the original cut at sale prices made it a very wise purchase. See, fabric hoarding is completely legit and cost effective.

Button hoarding is perfectly understandable too, as my button stash yielded the perfect buttons for the cape. Nothing gilt or fancy this time, just lovely nut/wood buttons in a variegated grey brown that matched the cape perfectly.

This time I haven't handstitched the lining around the perimeter and it seems to be behaving just fine and not sagging out at all. This wool, being more like a coating, is much more stable than either my Woodland Stroll cape or A's earlier cape so I'm sure that's the difference.

And then my pile of cutting out was complete and I immediately figured that A needed a pair of lined wool shorts like mine! I jumped straight into a pattern that has been in my to-make-one-day pile forever: the Finch Shorts by Clever Charlotte. 

I noted Nicole's (treasure trove of pattern knowledge!) comments that the Clever Charlotte patterns tended to run large and so went with size 6 which was a tiny bit below her measurements. Sure enough, they're quite big and the elastic in the back waist is cinched in a fair bit.

Lining the shorts was easy. The pattern already has the waistband and cuffs constructed from inner and outer pattern pieces. I just cut the facing pieces out of lining and made sure to understitch the seams so that the lining rolled in nicely. I then cut the shorts out of both wool and lining and followed my own "reverse the pleats" tutorial to baste the lining shorts into the outer shorts before adding the cuffs and waistband.

This lightweight wool works well for these shorts. It's just crisp enough to hold the pleats but still soft enough to move nicely and feel great, along with the lining, when worn over tights. I think they'll feel nice on bare legs too and hopefully they get a bit of warm weather wear as well. Did I say I'm over winter yet?...

Details:

Cape:
Pattern: Oliver + S Forest Path Cape
Size: 6
Modifications: added collar from Sunday Brunch pattern. Added hanging loop.
Fabrics: Double wool originally from The Fabric Store , same for lining

Shorts:
Pattern: Finch shorts by Clever Chalrotte
Size: 6
Modifications: added full lining
Fabrics: Wool blend and lining both from Rathdowne Fabrics

Buttons: all from Buttonmania via my stash

(Top: previously made Rowan Tee Skivvy, seen here.)