little plaid shorts

Fate smiled upon us today: sun on the 4th of July (it's been pouring rain for the past two days) and I finished these little heartbreaker pants this morning.  Obviously they're shorts not pants.  

I struggled with the decision for awhile and finally decided that I would make them the next size up (size 4/5) and hope next summer is warmer than this one.  In the meantime I think they fit fine.  That's how the kids wear their shorts these days anyway, right?  Extra long.

They seem to work just fine for diggin' in the sand.

Playing on the playground...

And eating dinner.

As you can see we take advantage of sunny days around here.  You never know which will be the last one before the rain comes back.

I did a couple of things differently for this pair.  First I made bias tape to match the lining fabric.  That's just for fun.  It makes me happy to see such well coordinated insides.

Pretty guts huh?  Almost too pretty for boy's shorts.

More importantly, instead of machine stitching down the waistband I slip-stitched it by hand.  So instead of looking like this...

Or this...

That's right I meandered off of course not once, but twice.  Almost too painful to look at isn't it?

It looks like this (front)

And this (back).

See how much neater the stitching is?  Oh wait, no you don't!  Haha!  

I have not been able to get the waistband sewn on neatly the way the book describes.

The number of layers is changing and you have the waistband to line up with on the outside and the turned under edge to sew through on the inside.  I finally decided it's easier to just hand stitch it in.  It doesn't really take that long.

Is it worth it? I guess that depends on how crazy you are.  I know that when he's wearing the khakis pictured above no one ever notices the wandering stitching line but I know it's there.  Apparently that's enough for me.

I also tried to match the plaids on the fronts and backs. 

Obviously I failed to do so on the sides though =(  I just forgot when I was laying out the pieces.  And what was I laying the pieces out on?  A large men's button up shirt.  I actually had to make the legs a wee bit narrower to fit all the pieces and line up the plaid.  The legs on this pattern are plenty roomy, though, and it was just a little bit.  I actually think that might be just as well since they're shorts.

Oh, and no cuffs: the shorts are rolled up a bit in these pics, though.  They're really long on him right now.  I'm hoping they get their wear this year and next, then maybe two summers for the next one!

So there you go.  Total cost I'd put at about $5 for buttons, elastic, and everything.  They're exactly what I wanted.

Another fortunate coincidence: this month's Sewing for Boys Sewalong pattern?  Of course =) Challenge accepted and completed.  I actually want to make another pair this month, though, so we'll see how things go.

environmental on the cheap

I am not claiming to be carbon neutral at all, but I feel like one thing you can do with sewing if you choose is drastically lower your carbon footprint.  How?  How can running an extra appliance for an hour (or, ahem, several) lower your carbon footprint?

Usually at least once a year old worn out and grown out clothes go to Goodwill and we have to go get DC a whole new wardrobe.  This year, though, those old clothes are becoming his new clothes!

This shirt used to belong to my husband but he ripped an enormous hole under the arm on the side of the shirt.  Had there been a seam there it could have easily been fixed, but it was one of those knit tees with no side seams.  Plus he pretty much ripped it incredible hulk style; the shirt did not fit him anymore.  To hear him tell it, though, I shrunk it in the wash.  Yeah...  Right...

That means this shirt was totally free and free from sweatshop labor.  In it's reincarnation anyway.  Hubby only buys the popular brands from stores at the mall which pretty much guarantees the shirt originated in a sweatshop.  The only new material required was thread (and energy to run the machine, of course).  The shorts I made out of a thrifted shirt.  Not quite as cheap or environmental, but close.

By the way these pictures are from the zoo.  If you've got kids and a zoo in the area definitely look into getting memberships.  The zoo here has a big indoor play area which we go for on rainy days and the rest of the time he loves to go see the animals.  And part of your membership fee goes towards conservation programs around the globe.  I know a lot of people are anti-zoo but I can understand how they're necessary to conservation efforts.

Perhaps if they'd been around they could've saved:

The dinosaurs!  That's right, that's a tiny dinosaur on his shoulder.  Lemme 'splain.  The orange shirt actually fit DC about a year ago.  Needless to say those days are long gone and it was hardly in any condition to save for baby girl to wear.  So I very strategically cut the sleeves out of the old baby shirt and the body out of one of my old shirts.

I could actually just barely get the dino on there at all, but I think it's a nice subtle detail.  It's a nice coincidence that DC saw Jurassic Park for the first time about a week ago and is now obsessed with all things dinosaur.  Really...  there are dinosaur stickers all over the floor in my sewing room.

And here he is discovering about the amazing properties of sand.  He loves the beach...  What can I say?  He takes after me I guess.  Too bad this summer will never get warm enough for swimming =(  Note that he's fully clothed including pants and a hat at the beach in June.  Oy.  Summer in Seattle?  Maybe someday.

That's Not Right....

I've been looking at this for 3 days now thinking that's just not right

Finally I had an epiphany.  Pants have two separate legs; I'm thinking of skirts.  I've been trying to make a pair of Kickin' Back Sweats (my second pattern from Sewing for Boys).  While I'm really liking this book so far, and I think it has a lot of great info for less experienced sewers (ahem, like me) such as what needle and stitch to use and what fabrics will work well for which patterns, sometimes I'm just beyond all reasonable help.  But I digress.  I had an epiphany, and five minutes later (after snapping this pic for purely comical reasons) I had this:

times two of course.  I was pleasantly surprised how shortly thereafter I had this:

and still had time to sew up another raw edge raglan before el monstruito woke up.  I already had the pieces cut out so it was all sewing.  Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to get to the fabric store for a new twin needle.  On the bright side, though, I now have a better understanding of why it's recommended.  C'est la vie eh?

You can see the pants are kinda long.  They're made from a thrifted sweatshirt and the cuffs were the waistband of the sweatshirt so they're ribbed.   (Yet another pattern where you can have nice finished edges without the finishing when you start with recycled materials).  Rolled up they're the perfect length.... and he'll grow.  Oddly, the shirt is a lengthened 4/5 and it fits perfectly.  The pants are a 2/3 and they're huge!  He must take after me: long torso and short legs.  Either that or the sizing on these patterns is a bit off.  That's why it's so imperative to measure you're little guy and refer to the sizing chart at the front.

The shirt is super soft with neon designs: some sort of writing on the back and this crazy looking scarecrow with a Chinese kind of hat on the front, all in neon orangey-pink.  I had to put the lettering upside down on the back (so presumably it's nonsensical) to squeeze four sleeves and a front and back out of this one shirt.  I'm not sure what it's made of since there was no English lettering anywhere on the tag but it seemed kind of sticky on the iron without actually melting so I think there's some elastic or something mixed in there with the cotton.

It wasn't quite warm enough to continue jacket-less, but it was nice enough to break out the sidewalk chalk!

Check out that concentration!  All in all: love these patterns, love that baby, love summer (wish it would get here!)