The sound of silence. And a pair of shorts

Did you have any babies or kids screaming and crying at your house this morning? No? Neither did I!

Today was Toby's first day at daycare and I had planned to only leave him there for the morning since it was pretty much his first time away from me and his dad.  There were tears, and plenty of them (not from me though!) but he also played a bit and slept a lot.  For three whole hours! So he stayed there until 2pm, which gave me enough time to not only sew my latest project, but also to photograph it and here I am posting it on my blog on the same day.  It's amazing how much can be achieved when there are no small children around and you know you have a finite time period.  It's also amazing how quiet it is without a super talkative four year old and a shouty baby, plus the noisiest and most annoying kids that live two doors away back at school too.  It was lovely.  And I get to do it all again tomorrow.

I've been seeing on lots of blogs people vowing to conquer some huge sewing feat or to not buy any more fabric as part of their new year resolutions.  I've long since given up on such resolutions - there is just way too much pretty fabric out there for me to stop shopping and my sewing nemesis is making a pair of perfectly fitting trousers but frankly I just can't be bothered spending the time required on refining muslin after muslin to get rid of fitting issues, especially when I rarely wear pants anyway. 

But every summer I do try to tackle the little sibling of the pants - the shorts.  I do mostly wear skirts or dresses on a daily basis, but with two small children there's lots of sitting on the floor and climbing on play equipment at the park so sometimes a pair of shorts is just the practical thing to wear.  Mostly I fail and make something I don't particularly love, so this year I went for something quick and simple. Enter Burda 6/2011 #111B:

Can't get much simpler than that can you? In fact I even left off the rear patch pockets because it already had side pockets, and my fabric was a little too busy for them to be noticeable anyway.  I was heavily influenced by all the floral short shorts I've been seeing around the place lately, and dug out some fabric from deep within the stash to make these:

I did lengthen the legs by about 5cm, because Burda's idea of "short" is my idea of "too short" but overall I'm pleasantly surprised by these! A pair of floral mid thigh shorts are so far out of my comfort zone it's not funny but I actually think these look flattering despite my pasty, freckly legs as well as being comfortable and practical.  I just wore them today with a simple black tshirt, but I think they could be worn with a crisp white shirt for a still casual but dressier look or perhaps I need to find a top in a complementary colour.

As I said, I managed to make these completely this morning, including tracing the pattern, cutting out the fabric and sewing it up in probably about 2 or 3 hours.  They were made completely from the stash so they were practically free, plus I used a Burda mag that haven't used before.  It's a win all round.
    

Thank you all for the lovely comments and helpful tips on the blue dress from two posts ago - I have already unpicked the hem and will re-sew it again by hand but this time with some fusible tape on the sewing line as suggested by Suziecurls and MrsMole.  If I make this dress again I will definitely play around with the shapes of the back panel to get a better fitted swayback, although I had to look up the shapes you mentioned Sewing Princess - I've clearly forgotten a good chunk of my primary school education!

now for something completely new.....

Yes, you read that correctly - I have made something entirely new and not a finally finished UFO either mine or inherited. A few weeks back we had some extremely hot weather, which although it has now disappeared and it's actually rather chilly for early spring I thought it was about time I started making some smart casual clothes for summer.

Going through my wardrobe I realised the majority of my clothes are quite dressy, or they are really manky not fit to be seen outside in. So to fill the hole, I turned to trusty BWOF and have traced off some skirts, tops as well as the bermuda shorts from the 6/09 issue (view 120b).

I even made my version in red linen like the photo in the magazine, although mine don't look quite nearly as sexy as the model:

Even though I usually wear knee length shorts, I thought baggy, paper bag waist style shorts to the knees might look like they belong only on a golf course. So I made these according to the pattern but to my surprise they didn't turn out as short as I thought, in fact they are a good in between length.

I did leave out the in seam pockets though, same reason as usual - trying to avoid extra bulk in my widest spot. These days I'm always carrying around a bag, and it's not like I can fit all that I carry in my pockets any more. I also left off the belt loops purely because I was too lazy to turn another linen tube after doing those tabs.

Speaking of the pull tabs, I didn't have any buckles so I used d-rings instead. I couldn't work out why the tabs turned out a bit too short and are only just long enough to put through the rings, until I realised I made the front tabs from the underlap piece that was supposed to be used for the zipper, and not the pieces I cut out for the tabs! So they look a bit funny this short, and I am considering taking them off and re-doing them (although I probably will procrastinate on that until next year).

I used the Sandra Betzina tutorial over at the Threads website for my zipper and ignored the BWOF instructions all together. In fact I only glanced over the BWOF instructions which might explain why these were so easy to sew. Although it would have been helpful to look at the instructions before sewing the darts and pleats, because those tabs get inserted into the folds of the darts on the back and the front pleats, and I had to unpick mine to put them in!

All in all I'm pretty happy with these, they will look pretty spiffy when I'm out walking with the pram or at play group chasing Anna around who is just itching to crawl once she learns to move her hands and her knees at the same time. In fact I can see another version, perhaps in a stripey seersucker fabric? Hmmm, I shall have to consult the stash........

Oh and thanks to the lovely Teresa/MarieSews for bestowing the Blog De Oro award upon me! I am supposed to pass it on to 10 other bloggers, but seriously with 336 blogs earmarked in my favourites list it's way too hard! Just consider yourself fabulous if you're a blogger