Denim shorts for little dudes

Wow, this was rather unexpected! I actually made more things for the little dudes! (Yep, that’s right – it’s another kids-clothing post. But at least there’s a vintage pattern in here, too!)

Since we’ve finally got some summer weather here, the little dudes are going through several changes of clothes a day due to lots of playing with water and sand at daycare. More shorts were in order, fast! (So naturally, I made them some. Surprise!)

First up was a pair for the Little Man. Sorting through my pattern stash, I pulled out Butterick 2122, from 1961. The pattern is for both a shirt and pair of trousers/shorts, however sadly my copy is missing all the pieces for the shirt! 😦

I made the shorts length up using a mid-light weight denim from Minerva Crafts (all the supplies for both pairs of shorts came from Minerva). Just for fun (because the Little Man adores trains) I added a train patch on the back.

Carrying on the train theme, I used a train track printed quilting cotton for the pockets. (I omitted the pocket facings as I wanted the train track fabric to show through to make the Little Man smile.)

Oddly enough, the pattern has a real zipper fly in it – complete with fly facing. Why is that odd, you may ask? Well, the instructions call for you to do a proper fly insertion, then to stitch it closed at the top!!! Yes, that’s right – all the effort of inserting a zipper fly, only to immediately make it non-functional. I have no idea why on earth they thought that was a good idea. (Needless to say, I ommitted the fly and just did a faux fly instead. Same look, far less hassle.)

I made them in a size 4, which is about half a size too big for the Little Man at present, hence why they’re looking a bit big on him. Give him another couple of months and they’ll fit fine. 😉

(For those curious, in that last photo he tripped over and then decided it would be fun to lie there digging in the dirt for a while. Cue overhead shot.)

For the Littliest Dude, I pulled out a pattern I’ve used several times before – Simplicity 3766.

Another super simple pattern – it consists of only two pattern pieces. A combined front/back piece (no outer side seam on the legs!), and a guide for cutting the elastic for the waist. Easy!

These were made up in the same denim, and for fun I used a playground print quilting cotton for panels along the legs.

I also added a little length of seam binding to the back inside waistband, so it’s possible to tell which way around they go!

I cut these ones at a long shorts length – long enough to cover the knees (a bit of protection for the inevitable falling over), while cooler to wear than full length trousers. And just like the other pair, they’re a little bit too big as I made them in the 18 months size.

Always fun trying to get decent photos of small creatures. “Hey what’s that you’ve got there? Can I have it? Give me give me give me that camera!!!”

“What’s this? An Elna Supermatic?!? Let me at it!!”

PJs, PJs, PJs and…. more PJs

Yep, you read that right – four lots of PJs. Because that’s what’s in this post – four pairs of PJ pants. (Clearly, I’m on fire with blog headings today.)

One thing that I keep telling myself that I really should do, and then constantly ignore in favour of making More Pretty Dresses!!! is to sew for the kids. I always have great plans, heck I even have fabric and patterns!, but well, it doesn’t tend to happen lots. Whoops.

But not this time! Oh no! I have actually sewn things for one of the small people! (Cue a ray of light shining down and bathing my sewing table in a golden glow.)

(For those not interested in reading about kids clothing, feel free to skip over the rest of this post. Because this post? It’s all kids clothing. Sorry.)

When browsing Fabric.com late last year (always a dangerous thing to be doing) I spotted some flannel with Minions on it. Minions, I tell you! How awesome is that?!? And since the Little Dude loves Minions (or ‘minis’ as he calls them), I snaffled some up to make him a pair of pajama pants.

(Yes, just pajama pants. See previous statement about how I’d rather be sewing All The Pretty Dresses and weigh it up against button holes and buttons and collars on something a three year old will only be wearing to bed. Clearly, the dress will always win that fight.)

So, I made him a pair of Minions pajama pants for Christmas. 🙂

And then I had some fabric left over, so I made him a pair of pajama shorts. (I didn’t have quite enough left for the waistband, so it got made using some scraps from a pair of pajama pants I made myself.)

And then it actually got hot here in Wellington. A very unusual occurrance! (As in – above 25 degrees C hot!) Our houses are not equipped to deal with heat. (Or cold, for that matter, but that’s a whole different story involving our forefathers thinking that since NZ is in the Pacific, it must be a tropical island and therefore insulation was not required in houses. Yeah, right.)

The Little Dude is one of those people who runs hot. Especially when he’s sleeping. And yet, aside from that one pair of Minions pajama shorts, he didn’t own any summertime pajamas. So, since I was on a pajama-making roll, I made him two more pairs.

A red pair with pirate flags.

And a blue pair with fish. (“Like Nemo!” apparantly.)

(Both in quilting cotton.)

All are in high rotation, and serving their purposely nicely. Yay, sewing!

Oh, and all four pairs were made using a pattern from the book “Making Baby’s Clothes” by Rob Merrett. Which is generally fulled of rather naff things involving pom-pom trim and be-ribboned ruffles, but if you can overlook that the base patterns are actually pretty solid. (Although the baby on the cover kinda freaks me out a bit….)

The pattern is simple – front leg, back leg, and waistband. There’s a faux fly, and an elasticated waist. And that’s about it.

Anyway, sewing duty for small person achieved – back to the regular schedule of sewing pretty dresses! 😉

Cupcake toddler dress (just like mum used to make)

Ready to see a little bit of cuteness?

Check it out. It’s a dress for a one year old. Made in a lemon yellow poplin. With pink pockets and cupcakes!!!

(And just for the record – I originally bought this fabric for me. And still intend to make a me-sized dress out of it. Because – yellow! Cupcakes!!)

Anyways, this little cupcake-covered cutie was a gift for my friend’s daughters first birthday.

I made it using Simplicity 7591 – a top, jumper and overalls pattern from 1976.

(Pattern image from the Vintage Patterns Wiki – my copy is in size 1 instead.)

Fun fact – my mother originally bought this pattern. And used it. A lot. She made me things, my brothers things, and my sister things. (Or maybe lil’ sis’ just got the hand-me-downs since she would have had newer patterns to use for her? Not sure….) So it’s a very well-loved pattern – apparantly it was one of mum’s go-to patterns for us kids.

I like knowing that I’ve used a pattern that I grew up wearing. It gives a nice feeling of continuation, don’t you think?

It also ties in well with my Vintage Pattern Pledge (which is basically to just use a bunch of vintage patterns from my stash this year. Sad that it’s taken me this long to use the first one! Although there’s a blog post about a second vintage pattern make coming up soon, yes indeed….)

I made the jumper view – a cute little A-line style with a zip in the centre front, patch pockets, and straps that button at the front. It’s a little hard to tell in the photo, but the buttons are burgundy red.

The inside is finished with facings. And in this case, also a little label, just because.

Wish I’d thought of making a cupcake to photograph with it. Mmmm… cupcakes….

Puppy pants!

Did ya see the Crazy Dog Lady Sewing Challenge that was happening last month?

Well, how could I resist a theme like that?!?

I must admit though, I’m not really a dog person. (<- understatement. Sorry, dogs and dog lovers. I'm a cat person, completely.) So it seemed a bit odd to make something for myself, since there is no way I could be called a "Crazy Dog Lady".

I did have this super cute cotton drill in my stash though – cream, with little chocolate-brown paw prints and bones all over it. Cute! And needing to be used.

The larger of my little guys, however, does like dogs. He gets a big, goofy grin on his face when we see one while out walking. So making something for him seemed the right thing to do.

And since I was about it, and had enough of the fabric, I figured I may as well start on the path to being one of Those Parents (you know, the ones who dress their kids the same) and make a pair in the same fabric for his little bro as well. (Heh. Years of amusement with doing this is ahead of me. *evil cackle*)

The larger pair are a pattern from a sewing-clothes-for-babies book. First time I’ve made the pattern (and only the second time I’ve used the book. It’s one of those ones that looks super cute before you have a baby, and kinda mostly impractical after you realise the reality of dressing a wriggling little person) and it went together well enough. The smaller pair are my go-to baby trousers, made several times before in both knits and wovens, for both boys. Gotta love that inset at the back to add extra space for over cloth nappie clad baby bums!

The brown fabric is linen, left over from the dress sample of my Melissa dress. (So one could say we have matching mother-and-child garments, perhaps?)

Since I didn’t want them too identical (yet, mwahahaha!) I made the larger pair in the brown linen, with patch pockets in the paw print cotton drill, set at angles to the leg seam.

The smaller pair are in the cotton drill, with the linen used for the inset at the back, and also for cuffs at the bottom of the leg (I made them extra-long, in a 6-12 month size, since this child is growing fast!)

They’re both a bit too big for the boys just yet, but give it another month or two (or a few more days, in the case of the smaller one!) and they’ll be perfect. 😉

And now, after that brief dog-inspired interlude, back to some selfish sewing….