This is going to be a short and sweet post. Hey, like these shorts. They actually started long, but then looked weird long. So they have cuffs thanks to this fantastic little tutorial, but now I’m thinking maybe they would look better without them. I don’t know anymore. I do know I rocked some serious topstiching action on these suckers (With orange thread, somehow it looks red in the photos). Oh and these are for my daughter. I think my son could rock the purple shorts, but he asked for orange.

1. 015 2. elephant hats 3. damage control 4. bellies are cuter

A little nuttiness from the pool today: elephant hats and dino hoodies! So many amazing handmade clothes on flickr! You guys rock.

Just some simple board shorts today. Though now that I look at them, they look more like old timey golfing slacks. Am I subconsciously trying to get my son on the course before he’s even held a golf club? He can rock the style without playing the game, right?

The pattern is from Happy Homemade vol. 2 again. Lots more of them cut out and ready to sew up, too. I told you you were going to get sick of this pattern. It’s got simple, easy to put together slash pockets and a totally useless, but awesome fake fly. Seriously, I love the fake fly. Makes the pants look a little more pulled together, a little less becky homecky.

1.garden party frock 2. sun hat 3. skirt that swings 4. smocked sundress

oops! I realized as I was putting this collection up that it’s all girl clothes today, but there are some fantastic boy clothes in the flickr mix too. Like this slammin red parachute jacket and these stylish jeans and this adorable baby sweater. I find that boys are a bit harder to sew for the in the summer. Maybe it’s because all those easy, summery dresses are calling to me to sew them up. What about you? Are you sewing frilly dresses or twenty pairs of boy shorts?

I forget it’s not always making the clothes that’s hard, because sometimes the sewing goes swimmingly, but it’s the taking a picture that is the trying part. Oh if you could see my daughter’s crabby face in this picture, well actually better you can’t.  How are my children going to turn out, growing up thinking it’s normal to take pictures of pants (and feet, and cupcakes, and anything else random and bloggy)?

Anyway, the skirt. I wanted to do it in a dark shirting fabric (sort of like my dress), but the fabric store was cleaned out when I went. So I used this cotton seersuckery stripe. The pattern is from another Japanese pattern book I love, Everyday Bottoms.

I added the secret shorts. Figuring out which sides should face each other when I was sewing the two together made my brain break out into a sweat, but it worked out in the end. After I was done I remembered Ellen has a quick little tutorial on a skirt with built in shorts (a skort?). So no brain sweat for you. Turns out the skirt is actually a little long to require shorts underneath, but hey, now I know how to do it. And it’s not hard!

1.leah tunic 2. strong-man 3. elephant pants 4. top and trousers

Look at the amazing stuff that you are making! Check out the flickr group for even more good stuff. I have to admit the laundry is starting to take over the house, but I have plans for more pants and short and I traced a button up shirt pattern, which I think might be going a little too far. How about you? Are you still going strong ?

The lovely ladies from my craft night came over last night for some beers and a little sewing (the two go together right?). If it hadn’t been for them I would have given up after the first hour of trying to rethread my serger. Seriously. Who designed that damn thing? But they saved the day! And I was able to turn a stained tablecloth into some rockin pants.

I used the same pattern that I did for these pants and these shorts. Except I skipped the back pockets and added cuffs. You are going to see a lot of this pattern this week, because my son likes it and my daughter too. It’s from Happy Homemade Vol. 2, which I can’t recommend enough (if you are down with making patterns written in Japanese). I’ve made a ton of clothes out of it and they’ve all turned out well and been worn a lot.

1. lace dress refashion 2. 008 3. 006 4. …went sailing by ‘wrap’ top

And look at what you guys have made! Adorbs. Obviously I’m partial to my knot shorts pattern, but you have to admit they are pretty darn cute in gingham. There is so much good stuff in the flickr group already and day two isn’t even over yet! You guys rock.

Have you heard about the awesome project Katy has going on over at the big dill? She’s rounded up a bunch of fantastic people and asked them all to design a project inspired by their favorite children’s book–it’s called Once Upon a Thread.  She so kindly asked me to participate and I was super excited to be a part of it, but then I kind of choked…well you can read all about it on her blog.

Also, wow! you guy are amazing! Thanks for all of the toy suggestions on the last post. Be sure to go read the comments to see what all the kids are playing with these days.