Index of Australian sewing bloggers and Mr Darcy's boxers!

We're finally home from our annual holiday northwards to sunny Queensland to visit my husband's family and to have a beach holiday. As much as I love going away for a holiday there's nothing quite like being in your own home either.

Whilst I was away, I received an email from Maren over at I am Ms. Frizzle telling me about an index of Australian sewing bloggers she has set up. What a great idea - I read blogs from all around the world because we all speak the common language of sewing but when you need inspiration for something to sew right now a local blog is most relevant in terms of the season. Go and check it out when you have time, and if you're not on the list email Maren to be part of it - the more inclusive the better I say!

So I'm not planning to do an end of the year roundup / Top 5 post because it's all been documented here already - I know I had some great hits, a few hilarious misses and no resolutions to break so this year I will keep on with the same. But I will blog one of the last things I made last year. My husband complained that I never sew anything for him and also complained that the elastic had gone in several of his sleep shorts which I had made for him quite a few years ago (see I do sew for him!). So to kill two birds with one stone I decided to make him a few more pairs.

I don't normally blog the boring basics I sew - there's nothing new to say about tracksuit pants or simple pull on shorts for the kids, even if I can get a cute photo of them wearing it. But I decided to blog this to officially record that I do actually sew for him and also to give a shout out to the pattern I used because not only is it free but it's also simple and great.

I used the Darcy boxer short pattern available free to download from the pattern designers site and from The Sewing School at Peppermint Magazine. This pattern is developed by the lovely Susan at Measure Twice Cut Once, who I have had the pleasure to meet quite a few times through the Sydney Spoolettes group. Now I know I have been a bit critical of indie pattern companies in the past, but Susan actually does have industry training and experience so I knew the pattern would work perfectly. And it did.

Since my husband looks more like Yao Ming the giant Chinese basketballer than the delightful Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, I'll spare you a photo of him modelling them. But I made a few small pairs of simple shorts for Toby from the same fabric so here's a cute clothesline photo of the matching daddy and son shorts:

There's not much to say about a simple boxer short pattern, but the fit is spot on and the instructions are very informative with helpful diagrams. I made a few small changes - I did a faux fly instead of an opening button front fly because I was a bit lazy and pushed for time, and I also didn't have any white elastic so instead of an exposed elastic band waist I made a casement for the crazy rainbow elastic I did use. The only small quibble I had with the pattern is that there are separate pattern pieces for the left and right fronts with the only difference being the fly extension on the left front. It just means printing out more paper and extra cutting out which you could probably do without.

If you're in need of new boxer shorts the Darcy pattern is good for ladies as well, and comes in a range of sizes. In fact Susan has a whole range of patterns for essential and pretty underclothes in her shop along with sew-a-longs and handy tips on her blog as well.

It turns out I had a lot to say about a pair of simple boxer shorts didn't it?

still making big people's clothes

I know there's been lots of sewing of little girls clothes on this here blog lately, which is insanely boring to those of you who don't have small children! Don't pretend otherwise, even I used to glaze over looking at sewing blogs that went from adult clothes to kids clothes before I got myself preggers.....

But all is not lost. Since I'm back at work on 1 February (just a few short weeks thanks for reminding me Carolyn!) I'm working on a back to work SWAP (sewing with a plan). I'm currently scouring my Burda magazines and patterns for suitable blouses and suits and already have a stack of fabrics in mind.

However until then, here's some adult clothes I prepared earlier - another version of the tab shorts from Burda 6/09 pattern 120.

I have made these previously in red linen, and just before christmas I managed to make a pair in grey and white stripe seersucker fabric in time for our holiday (from hell).

Instead of buckles for the side ties I used buttons purely because I didn't have any buckles or D rings to hand and I wasn't braving the fabric shops in the pre-Christmas madness. I also made the ties longer because the original version were barely long enough. And just for some fun I put some button tabs on the cuffs for decoration because I saw that done on a pair of Gant shorts that were retailing for $300 odd dollars and I like to feel smug in my thriftiness/cheapness.

Nothing too technical or too exciting I know, but here's something else I made to dazzle you. My husband is a bit of a golf nut and a few months ago we were in a golf shop laughing at the extremely ugly clothes when he picked up a pair of black and white check pants and said "but these are ok". I bit my tongue and thought otherwise, but they were $150 so I wasn't about to buy them for him. So as a bit of a joke christmas present I made him a pair from stash fabric, a lightweight wool in a black and white check with a fine yellow line through it. I actually made a vintage skirt out of this fabric a while ago, and while I think the skirt looks fine for some reason a pair of men's pants in this fabric are a bit, well, fugly! Technically they are pretty good if I do say so myself. I made an actual functioning bag pocket on the rear with a welt pocket (usually I just do the welt for show and sew down the flaps so it doesn't open) which looks wonky because I didn't match the check very pattern very well:

I made the fly in the proper menswear style with a fly extension which is so much fussier and more difficult than the fly zippers on women's wear:

So why is there no photo of my husband wearing them? Well I failed the most basic bit of all - they don't fit! I checked his RTW suits and they were all size 36, and the pattern I had is a size 38 so I thought it would be ok but it turns out they are way too small. I guess that's the danger of making a surprise pattern where you can't measure the recipient. And since I've never made anything for my husband before except for some boxer shorts, I didn't even have anything previously to go by. I used Vogue 7004, a now OOP pattern that I picked up from an oppy some time ago.

So this adds up to a craft FAIL, at least until my husband loses enough weight to fit into them ha ha ha ha.

Thank you all for your reassuring comments about travelling with little mites. I'm glad to know that lots of wee ones have fractious travel experiences and that Anna maybe isn't completely evil/insane after all. Oh Claudine, you've confirmed my worst fears - that holidays aren't really holidays anymore and they are still just about entertaining the kidlets but somewhere different! I've already told my husband that for my 40th birthday I want to go trekking in Nepal on my own and he can stay home with the kid(s). Sue - what a coincidence, we stayed at Peppers Salt at Kingscliff too although we got upgraded to the Bale section for some unknown reason that I wasn't complaining about because we scored a luxury two bedroom apartment when we had only booked and paid for a one bedroom one! Yay for small luxuries.....

the long and the short of it

Thanks everyone for your delightful comments regarding the fabric stash, it still lifts my spirits every time I go in to my sewing room and see that wall of rainbow goodness. I could talk about my fabric stash all day, in fact visitors who dare to enter get a glazed look after a while, sort of like looking at other people's holiday slides..... But since you asked, here's some answers:

Anne LO asked if I was worried about fading the fabrics since the room is so sunny. This is a definate concern since a lot of that fabric (ok most of it) will sit there maturing for many many years before being used. I was toying with enclosing the shelves with fabric curtains but the reason I chose open shelving instead of cupboards was for the visual impact (ie if I see it I'm more likely to use it), so I'm going to make curtains for the windows instead to block the sun out when I'm not in the room.

Nancy K - I totally agree with you on the lack of complementary shoes for brown and tan colour clothes. Although I sometimes wear red shoes with tan colours, but then again I wear red shoes with practically everything (but not red clothes, that would be way too much!).

Paola asked about remnants. Well, as I have openly admitted I am a major hoarder and I find it difficult to throw out fabric scraps of practically any size, even though I'm not a quilter which is the logical use of them. I am hanging on to them for Anna to play with and make doll clothes from, or for potentially embellishing clothes. That said, I have way more remnants than I will ever need, but I just can't throw them in the bin. This red, white and blue stripey bag next to Anna has all my fabric scraps and remnants after I had a major throw out of the smaller pieces:

Tracy you're right about not getting into bad habits early just because it's funny like putting Anna in the washing basket. I have bought a cheap highchair from Ikea which is at the same height as my sewing desk, and Anna has been sitting next to me quite happily observing so I think this is a better solution.

georgeina your question about folding the fabric to get them all the same size is not uber-nerdy at all! I tried doing it quilting style, ie folding the fabric around a piece of rectangular cardboard to get the same widths but that may work for fat quarters but doesn't really for long lengths of fabric or chunky fabrics. So I just eyeballed it, and if you look closely they aren't exact but close enough. It does drive me a little crazy though, and I wish they were exact but obviously I have significant obsessive / compulsive issues....

Littleredhen - frustration levels re lack of napping around here reached all time high last week, almost to the point where I wanted to go back to work to get a break! I spent 30 minutes settling Anna to get only 8 minutes of napping, but mostly she is still only napping 20 minutes at a time. I've started feeding her solids now to see if that fills her up and makes her sleepy - it's how I feel after Christmas lunch so I thought I'd give it a try (yeah I'm not up for mother of the year award that's for sure!)

Anyway, having organised my stash has really got my motivation going since last week I made Anna a pair of pants and a little jumper, two pairs of boxer shorts for my husband and I've cut out and pinned a dress for myself but I need to change the thread in the overlocker before sewing it up. I didn't finish cleaning my sewing room though, just enough space around the machnes to work LOL.

I made the jumper and the pants for Anna from this 1980s pattern picked up from an op shop, and once again they were way too big. The jumper is now put away for a few more months time, but the pants I figure need to be a bit bigger since the fabric I used doesn't stretch and it needs to get over her big cloth nappy butt. I used some caramel coloured fine wale corduroy, chosen because it was in the stash and it's not pink! I know little girls are supposed to wear pink, but she has way too much pink clothing so I'm trying to balance it out with reds and neutrals. I also sewed a pocket on the back not because I'm expecting her to use it but just so I know which is the front and back when I'm dressing her.

The boxer shorts I made for my husband also came from stash fabric, and were made from a vintage sewing pattern for men's swim shorts. Apart from an Elvis costume and a kilt type skirt made novelty fabric (both for fancy dress) this would be the first clothes I've made for him. I really just wanted to make this pattern so I could post over at Sew Retro, but I won't tell him that!

So the pants and boxer shorts are pretty boring right? Well the funny thing is the extremes in size (ie the long and the short):

And I guess when you see the two wearers together you can see why!: