Spring floral bloomers

This week on The Sew Weekly is the Colette pattern challenge. Colette Patterns are a very cute company out of the States who make vintage-inspired patterns. The challenge was to create something using one of their patterns. Sadly, since they’re based in the States, I didn’t think there was much chance at all of any pattern I ordered arriving in time. 😦 (Also, the international shipping cost and the exchange rate put any of their patterns well over what I’m willing to spend for a pattern! Sad but true.) So I decided (without much other option!) to make their Madeleine Mini Bloomers. I must admit, I wasn’t too sure about this pattern – I had a feeling it wasn’t really ‘me’, but in the spirit of the challenge, I decided to give it a go! (I must also admit that I was tempted to just draft myself a Crepe style dress, but thought that wouldn’t really be fair.)

The pattern itself was quite easy to use. Very few seams, nice instructions, and it printed off well. (First time I’ve used a downloaded pattern!) It took me about 1.5 hours to assemble the pattern, and make up a pair of mini bloomers. With the pattern now assembled, I think it’d take about 45 mins to make another pair if I wanted to.

So here’s the details….

Fabric: lightweight vintage cotton, free from my mother’s stash years ago
Pattern: Madeleine Mini Bloomers from Colette Patterns, free from their website
Notions: About 1.3m of elastic. No idea when I got it or how long I’ve had it, or what it would have cost!
Time to complete: 1.5 hours (including assembling the pattern)
Total cost: Unknown, but probably around $1 for elastic

Will I wear them? Maybe. If I run out of underwear one day…..

And here’s what they look like:

Mini bloomers

I decided not to get a photo of myself wearing them, for two reasons:
1 – they are a bit see-through due to the lightweight cotton
2 – to be honest, they look a bit stupid and I would be embarrassed for anyone to see them. They make me feel like I’m wearing nappies. Or as my boyfriend put it, they look like granny pants. Hmmm.

So yes, I must admit that this challenge didn’t really work out for me! I’ll probably wear these as part of my Me Made March resolution, but I kinda doubt I’ll wear them again after that. (Although so saying, they are kinda comfy!)

And on that note, time to sign off. (It took a wee bit longer to write this post than usual, as we had a little earthquake in the middle of it! Only 4.5, but close to Wellington, and after last week’s big Christchurch earthquake we’re all a bit more paranoid about them than usual. Steve and I both ran for doorways, whereas we usually wouldn’t even get off the couch for an earthquake that size. We’ve all turned into wimps after last week!) (So saying, our first thoughts were ‘I hope that wasn’t centered in Christchurch!’, following by lots of waiting to see on the geonet site where it was. Thankfully, no where near Christchurch. Big sighs of relief all around the Wellington Twitterati as a result.)