Handmade Holiday Part 3

You can find parts 1 and 2 here.

While I was procrastinating on my dress, I made a pair of shorts. We have only been abroad once since we had the kids, and I hadn't done a beach style holiday in about 20 years so I was majorly stressing about what to pack. I only owned one pair of short which I have had for over 10 years so I thought a second pair wouldn't go amiss. There are a few shorts patterns I fancied trying but with the limitations of time, I decided to stick with something I knew would work - the Emerson by True Bias. Since I had made the cropped pants last year I knew they would work perfectly. 

I used a Robert Kaufman railroad denim that I've had in the stash for a number of years, so it was good to finally find a use for it. Its a lightweight denim, so not too thick or heavy for hot weather. 

The shorts came together with no issues whatsoever. It's a great pattern and a quick sew. At this point my overlocker was still working so the insides are overlocked in red, and I bound the inside waistband with Liberty bias binding. Because I can.

My only regrets with these shorts are that I used cheap elastic which isn't very stretchy, which makes them a bit difficult to get over my hips (especially on top of a wet swimsuit!) and which also makes the waistband a bit tighter than my others. In general they are slightly less comfortable than my cropped pants. I think I need to fiddle with the crotch curve a bit if I make another pair - I suspect the chambray of the cropped pants relaxes more than the denim and so is a bit more forgiving. They aren't in the pattern, but I also could have done with patch pockets on the back on these. However, they are still a great little workhorse of a pair of shorts. I wore them numerous times on holiday. They are comfy (just not as comfy as the others), and they go with pretty much everything. The length as drafted is perfect for me - not too long, not too short. I can imagine they will last me the next 10 years!

Completed: Dog Shorts (Woof!)

I made Small Boy another pair of shorts. This was the fabric he first picked from my stash. It's by Cloud 9 and is from the Small World collection, designed by Rae Hoekstra and it's a really fine organic cotton cord. I love it. I bought it from John Lewis at the same time as I bought the fabric for this cushion. Is it ridiculously childish to admit that I was thrilled when Rae herself commented "LOVE" when I posted the below photo on IG this week?

I have learned recently that my memory plays tricks on me - or perhaps the staff at the cutting table do - and I have a number of lengths of fabric that are not nearly as long as I thought they were. This is one of them. I could have sworn I had 1.5m of this but it turned out I only had 0.8m. Odd length, so either I bought a metre and it shrunk significantly during pre wash, or maybe this was all they had left. The latter rings a bit of a bell.



The original plan was to make trousers for Baby Boy with this, but I never got round to it. Somehow I couldn't imagine them as shorts and I didn't know what else to make. I thought the print would be a bit too babyish for Small Boy, but he decided otherwise and actually his vision was spot on. The fabric is fabulous as shorts.

There's a pattern matched back pocket in there somewhere, I swear. 

The pattern is the Sunny Day shorts again, pretty much made as last time. This time I used one pattern piece for the pocket facing, and I did no top stitching, other than at the pocket opening. I also only did one back pocket and the drafted one piece waistband. This all made for a much faster make. The front pocket lining is recycled from one of my husband's shirts. A nice touch having Daddy's shirt in there, and he was proudly showing that off to his Granny today.

I pattern matched the pockets front and back, but that was all. There wasn't enough fabric to do any more. The waistband is pieced for the same reason, but it all looks fine. You need to take my word for the pattern matching, as I have no flat photos. These shorts are either on him or in the washing machine.



I'm really happy with these. The colours are so vibrant and although I worried that they might not go with many of his t-shirts, he has proudly been rocking them with an orange Star Wars t-shirt. Colour clashing and print mixing FTW. I guess you might need to be 6 to pull off all the colours.

No posey shots this time. These photos were taken on my iphone at Hoggenfield Loch in Glasgow, which is near where my Mother in Law lives. My sister in law is over from New York at the moment so it was nice to see the cousins catch up and play so nicely with each other.

Completed: DIY pocket shorts & bonus birthday t-shirt

Small Boy is in desperate need of some shorts. Most of the shorts he is currently wearing are age 3-4, and he turned 6 last month. To be honest, they do still fit, but I felt that he probably was due some new ones.

We had a look through my stash, and he chose a fabric. This is not the fabric he chose. The pattern required a few changes to meet his specifications and I wanted to make a wearable muslin pair to make sure I hadn't messed it up. And then I kind of got carried away with details. I didn't have time to make both pairs before we went on holiday.

The pattern is the free Oliver and S Sunny Day Shorts, which I've made before as PJs for both boys. They are a very basic, elasticated waist pattern. The changes I made were to lengthen them to below knee length, and to add front and back pockets. The back pockets are patch pockets and I copied the size from another pair of shorts, changing the shape slightly. For the front pockets, I drafted pocket pieces and bags and made it slightly more challenging by adding a 2 piece facing - I don't know the proper name for this, sorry. It's like the pockets you get in jeans, where the exposed top part of the facing is denim, but the lower portion of the same piece is the pocket lining. Do you know what I mean? I did this because by then I realised I had just enough of this denim for the shorts, which I knew would be too bulky for a full pocket facing.

This is what I mean

The denim is left over from this Inari dress, and I had to cut it all on the cross grain to fit it in. The pockets and waist band facing (yeah, I "drafted" that too, again to cut down on bulk) are made from chambray left over from my midi skirt. As I was cutting it, I was thinking it was a pity I didn't have any cool boyish fabric to use, when I came up with the idea of letting him design them himself. I cut the pieces and then let him draw on them with fabric pen. Of course I forgot to tell him which way up the pieces went, so some of the are now on their sides, but that doesn't matter too much. For info, each piece is themed. We have Tom & Jerry, Star Wars, Edinburgh Zoo and Dragons of Berk. The waistband says his name and then From Mummy and Daddy, Thank You. 

I finally managed to use the selvedge on this denim, on the back pockets and I sewed them on wrong side out for fun. All topstitching is done in turquoise thread, although as it's normal thread it's pretty subtle, which is a shame, because it's pretty good! I did bar tacks at the pockets to strengthen them, which turned out well. I also did a fake fly, which I free handed, because without it, the shorts looked a bit meh. It's subtle, but I think it makes them.

The fit is quite a bit baggier than he usually wears, but it works. I could slim the legs down, but I'd also need to start fiddling around with the crotch curve and I'm not prepared to do that for boy's shorts. The thing about boys is that they grow, so any changes I make, I'll only have to make again in a year or so. It would be easier just to buy a different pattern.

The boy is delighted with these and I am too. He wore them 3 days straight on holiday, where these photos were taken. We went to Dunoon on the West of Scotland for a week, and these were taken at Inverary Jail, where we spent a day. He is wearing the shorts with his birthday tee, which I have realised I haven't blogged. I didn't make the tee - it's M&S - but I did the stormtrooper stencil using my usual method. I think birthday tees are becoming a tradition. This one I made in good time, so the ink would have plenty of time to cure. I found the stencil on Pinterest, here. He also loves this. Double win!!!

He takes his modelling very seriously. To a point.

And then his brother wanted to join in.

Coincidentally, he was wearing his Milk t-shirt under that fleece! Home-stencilled tees FTW!

Cuties steal my heart every time!