Shorts 2

Shorts 2 was whipped out in one night so that my daughter could wear it to school the next day. Her friends asked where she bought them and she told them her mum made it :)

Shorts 2 fits better after I modified the pattern and added a bit of ease.

She's been wearing shorts everyday as the weather here has been really hot, too hot for jeans. I'm going to dig in my stash for fabric to sew more shorts. I want to try different variations, like different pocket styles and cuffs or hemmed with lace. When I go shopping these days, I look more closely at the details on clothes and keep a lookout for ideas I can incorporate into my sewing.

I added a cuff to the bottom hem. The fabric is black so you might not be able to see the topstitched cuff below but you can see the cute bunnies and mice.


Note to self (because I'm forgetful): Here's how I did the cuffs.
Sew the side seam of front piece to back piece.
Cut a rectangle. Length = length of the front + back hem. Width = 3 X the finished width of cuff.
Fold the cuff into three folds lengthwise and iron.
Then sew the hem to the edge of the first fold line, wrong sides facing.


Next, fold the cuff on wrong side once more (like making a hem) and sew.

Last step is to topstitch the cuff on the front to the shorts. Voila! easy cuffs.

Shorts 1

I'm so excited about these shorts. It was a bit of an experiment. I've always wanted to try and sew a pair of shorts, but most elastic waist shorts patterns I've seen are huge. So I decided to try and draw my own pattern from a pair of shorts that fit my daughter. I had to do the paper pattern twice because it was difficult trying to get the correct shape.


Sewing the pieces together was another exercise in trial and error. The funny part was when I sewed the 2 front pieces together and the 2 back pieces together and realised that I couldn't sew the crotch together! Haha, I was supposed to sew each front to a back piece and then insert one tube (leg) into the other in order to sew the crotch.


All the time while I was sewing, I didn't have a clue as to how it would turn out. So imagine my excitement when I finished it and she tried it on and oh my goodness it fits better than I had hoped !!!!! But I think I will add 1cm to the front piece near the inseam so that it would fit more comfortably and not crease at that spot.


My daughter who has sensitive skin, says that this fabric (a poly cotton) is a little scratchy and itches, so I'm going to sew another one in cotton. I have some black cotton with tiny rabbits and mice that would make a cute pair of shorts. The weather here has been extremely hot lately so shorts will come in handy. In fact it was so blistering hot when we took the pics, that I only snapped a few and we quickly ran back into the shade.

reversible bag

Last week, I made this bag.


It's the reversible bag pattern from very purple person. Her instructions are clear and easy to follow. I like the part where I turn the bag inside out through the handles. So cool.

It is a very useful size and I like the shape.

It has been extremely hot these days. I need to sew more school skirts but I am running out of skirt ideas. I need inspiration. Let me know if you know of any online websites with photos of cute skirts. Thanks and have a good weekend :)

School Dress 1

I'm so excited to show you School Dress 1. Instead of just sewing a skirt, my daughter suggested that I sew the skirt to a tshirt and turn it into a dress. This took 4 steps.

1. Cut off the bottom of one of her old tshirts, about 2 1/2 inches (including 1/2 inch seam) below the waist. Saved the leftover tshirt hem for some other project.



2. Sew elastic band (slightly longer than waist measurement so that the elastic would sit just below the waist) to bottom of tshirt


3. Sew pockets and side seams of skirt. By the way, I like the pockets ... I drew the curve on the paper pattern using a rice bowl :)



4. Sew skirt to elastic band.

Notes to self: the skirt is 40 inches width. I could have made it narrower, probably up to 36 inches for a slimmer fit.

When I gathered the skirt round the elastic, it turned out poofy. But I couldn't simply cut off the excess at the edges as I had already made the pockets. So I unpicked the skirt from the elastic band and made 4 pleats in the middle. I think that helped to reduce the poofiness of the skirt. I am quite happy with how it turned out.