Tim's Two Piece Setacular

Tim had a boys trip to the beach last month, so I made him a ridiculous two-piece set for beach bumming, and then made him take photos of it in the snow. 

Have Legs, Will Wear Denim Pietra Shorts

Joining in the summer fun that is Maker Mountain Fabric's #HaveLegsWillWearShorts summer sewing adventure!

Trigg Shorts for Tim

After our initial success with the Trigg Shorts pattern, I made Tim a couple more pairs for sleeping and lounging:

Testing, testing: Cashmerette Calder Shorts

Hello blog readers, long time no see!

Fish Print Elbe Trigg Shorts

Definitely some wishful summer sewing going on here... we're not even close to shorts weather here yet, although it did feel quite warm this past Sunday!

Organic Twill Pietra Shorts

Have legs, will wear shorts!!

Dude Sewing: Jersey Juba Shorts

Tim requested some "sleeping shorts" made from "t-shirt material." I translated this to mean simple, comfy, elastic waist shorts in jersey knit.

Floral Fifi for a Friend

Colleen, avert your eyes. Spoilers abound.

A good friend of mine is getting married in September and is have a mini-bachelorette/wedding shower next month. While I can't attend, I wanted to send a little gift... the other girls were joking that I should make her a hand-sewn lingerie set, or maybe a Saucy Safari get-up for our environment, travel and hiking loving friend.

Oceanside Shorts

I made myself some shorts to cope with Bangkok's sweltering heat (we're going on 3 months of unbearable heat now and I am fed up, y'all.)!

Dude Sewing: Linen Jutland Shorts

Shorts! Tim had a request for new shorts, which coincided with this year's Shorts on the Line competition/celebration over at Imagine Gnats and Kollabora. Kismet, I tell you.

Sorbetto and Prefontaine PJs: Cat Lady Sewing Challenge #1

When Erin at Miss Crayola Creepy announced The Cat Law Sewing Challenge, I was all at once feeling delighted, excited, and inspired about sewing with cat themed fabric, not to mention mildly embarrassed by those aforementioned feelings. I dove in headfirst, making two (well, three, really) garments for the challenge.  My two garments fall on either end of the cat-fabric spectrum.  Here's my first!

  

Ikat Print Prefontaines

Whew, that was a long sewing break!!  I'm super happy to get back in the game with this quick win:

Made with Moxie Prefontaine shorts!!  A belated birthday gift...  I love my panda pair so much, I thought I should share the Prefontaine goodness.

Hopefully my somewhat tragic fabric placement in the front of the shorts doesn't irk the birthday girl!

I made them with Amy Butler Kasbah faux-ikat fabric, remnants from my Meghan dress from last year. The navy ponte trim (also used on my previous pair of Prefontaines) is leftovers from Tim's Newcastle. 

These Prefontaines came together like buttah.  What a great pattern... 

Hopefully the birthday girl will share photos of her rocking these Prefontaines once they arrive at her place!

Ash Halter Top and Monkey Bar Skirt

My first Monkey Bar Skirt for Zoe came out so cute, I immediately made another one.  This time, though, I used woven fabric for the skirt... a super cute cotton/poly blend with watercolor strawberries from a local shop here in Bangkok.  The green waistband and shorts are made from this emerald heather jersey blend from Girl Charlee (super soft!).  Love it!  Download this free pattern from Hey June if you haven't already!

I also made a top to match: the adorable halter top portion of Willow & Co's Ash jumpsuit.  Zoe looked so cute in the pink seersucker Ash jumpsuit I made here that I thought I should make it again.  The halter doesn't have a lot of hanger appeal (or kitchen table appeal, as it were), but I know it will look awesome on her:

The whole outfit is pretty damn cute, huh?:

Dude Sewing: Juba Shorts for Men

Shorts!  For dudes!

When Rachael at Imagine Gnats released the Juba shorts pattern and it included an option for men's shorts, I decided it was a sign. Must make shorts for Tim. Must continue quest to make men's clothes. Eventually I must master the zip fly.  But for now, baby steps. Casual, tie/elastic waist shorts to start.

I decided to use this fun pre-patchworked fabric I got on clearance at a local store here in Bangkok. Mayhaps not the best choice as it's quite lightweight.  But I forged ahead nonetheless, topstitching the seam allowances down for extra strength.

Sadly, my patchwork shorts for Tim may have to be limited to lounging around the house.  The crotch is super low (although when I look at the photos, it looks normal?). That, combined with the thinness of the fabric, makes me worry that he'll split them up the center seam if he wears them out and about.

I think I might have made a size too big... they're a bit roomy all around.  Or perhaps it's a simple fitting alteration: shortening the length from waist to crotch and then lengthening the legs.  I'm not sure, but I will definitely try making these Juba shorts again, as they have a lot of potential to be a weekend wardrobe staple. Tim's been eyeing the stretch chambray I just got from the Imagine Gnats shop, but he'll have to fight me for it! Juba shorts for me, too?

Until then, please enjoy these photo session outtakes below!!

Google+ decided these photos of Tim making weird faces and strangely grabbing his stomach were GIF-able:

And that this one was "auto-awesome"-worthy... I guess it is automatically awesome when you grow a third arm directly out of your existing forearm... imagine how much sewing I could get done with a third arm!!:

Monkey Bar Skirt!

A productive sewing weekend!  Less productive on other things... oops!

 Using the leftovers from my rainbow dot Moneta, I whipped up the brand new (free!) Monkey Bar Skirt pattern from Hey June (remember I made Hey June's Greenpoint cardigan late last year?) as my first weekend project.  

Such a cute pattern and great idea... at first it looks like a simple skirt, but then, booyah!!!

Little built-in bike shorts underneath:

This sounded perfect for Zoe, who is spending the summer playing on her new (to her) swingset. Does the Monkey Bar Skirt count as a skort? I'm gonna vote no, because that word has bad '90s connotations for me.  Anyway, can't wait to see it on Zoe!  It's just not quite as cute when photographed flat as I'm sure it will be on her...

In any case, the skirt is crazy easy to put together. It took me several hours, but only because my serger ate the first skirt (tears!)... turns out if you don't change the needles on your serger, bad things happen.  Namely, knit fabrics start getting sucked/pushed into the loopers, ripping a hole in your project and making a giant tangled mess in the machine. Consider this a public service announcement... change your needles! Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.  Luckily the shorts and waistband part from the first skirt were undamaged, and I was able to fit another skirt out of my scraps by cutting it the non-stretchy way, which Adrianna reassuringly said in the instructions was fine.  Woo!

Mo Shawties

More and more shorts...  these two pairs are both made from the Simplicity 4203 pattern, but with some modifications.

The plaid pair has pockets sewn on each side (I used the flap pockets from the Colette Negroni pattern), and the striped pair has a button tab on the side of each leg as an accent.

Boardies

The cute kiddo shorts keep coming... this time a little longer and a little more retro in style, kinda like old-school board shorts:

I was browsing the tutorials section over at MADE, saw this awesome tutorial for Retro Racer Shorts and remembered that I had printed out her free Kid Pants pattern several months ago, but hadn't yet taped it together...  30 seconds of taping and cutting well spent just for these shorts, and Dana's got about a thousand awesome variations on the Kid Pants pattern that I plan to try now that I have the pattern put together!!

I made the first pair of shorts a little bit girly with flowered fabric (same used for Zoe's overalls) and thin pink double-fold bias tape (vintage, from 1978, care of the Real Martha):

This awesome pair is actually up-cycled from a pair of Target pajama pants that I have had (and loved) for several years, but recently ripped in an unflattering way.  I was able to cut one pair of toddler shorts from one of the pajama pant legs, so I could potentially still cut another out of the second leg... score!  Add some more vintage bias tape and ta-da!:

Shawties!

Sorry for the delay in posting... been hanging around with monkeys and orangutans in Sumatra.  To make up for it, I whipped up a bevy of toddler shorts (or shawties, if you will) in a fit of productivity after returning from my great Bukit Lawang trip.  

Two pairs of teeny Bubble Pocket Shorts (using the pattern from Elegance and Elephants), one made from the remnants of my favorite Tiny Pocket Tank (well, maybe my second favorite) and one made from the remnants of a purple flowered Scout Tee:

And two tiny pairs of simple cuffed shorts (using Simplicity 4203, same pattern I used for Zoe's flowered prairie dress) made in hand-stamped batik leftover from a couple Scout Tees:

Batik Bubble Pocket Shorts

Another list item, checked off:  Bubble Pocket Shorts.

Another cute pattern from Elegance and Elephants, made with navy batik (leftover from this Scout tee and the bandana I made Scuba Steve... I am getting my money's worth out of this piece of batik!).  I used the batik's border print for the cuffs.  I alllllllmost got the batik to match up across the seams, almost.  Completely inadvertent.

Here's a side view of the bubble pocket:

These are for Mr. Ben and Erin's baby, due in a few months.  I made the 6-12 months size and it was quite easy to put together.  The only problem I ran into is that the leg cuffs were a little large for the legs, but I am pretty sure that's due to a late night measuring error on my part.  More of these to come, for sure! 

Baby Bloomers

I saw this new free pattern for baby bloomers from See Kate Sew last week and knew I had to give it a try.  With one pattern piece and only 1/4 yard of fabric required, why not?

I used some beautiful Amy Butler fabric that I had leftover from these Big Butt Baby pants I made for Zoe a few months ago.  Maybe Zoe and Baby Dos can wear matching outfits? 

Also, a pair made from the leftover scraps from my '60s looking Grainline Tiny Pocket Tank:

They're pretty cute on their own, but even cuter on a baby, so be sure to check out the action pics on the original blog post at See Kate Sew.