Tag Archives: Shorts

Carolyn pyjamas

I was supremely flattered when Heather of Closet Case patterns contacted me to ask if it was ok to
name her latest pattern after me… wow, seriously?!
!!!!!  
*deeply flattered moment*
So the Carolyn pattern is for pyjamas, hehe. 
Yep, I inspired pyjamas!  Honestly
I’m not sure why I find that borderline hilarious, but there it is!
I have to say though; it’s amazing that Heather totally has her
finger on the pulse of what everyone is currently needing to wear and sew.  
Loungewear.
Very astute.  I mean, I love Vogue patterns for their smart
little fitted designer dresses, and have often thought that the working woman can do no wrong
by sewing up nothing but little Vogue dresses for her office/working wardrobe…
so smart and stylish and absolutely perfect for a businesswoman’s life.  but here’s the thing, the number of people
working from home has increased significantly over the last few years and
comfortable loungewear is definitely a thing that work-from-home peeps are
stocking up on for their working life, not just for their after hours life.  A few years ago, who’d have thought it? But
now totally this is a real trend.  I
mean, I work from home myself. And although I need and want to dress up smartly for many things in my life, my real wardrobe workhorses lean towards the easy-to-wear and casual.
Enter stage right; stylish and smart loungewear.
The things one would actually wear to bed are generally loose-fitting to enable
minimum chance of ripping or restraint while one is unconsciously flailing about, but Heather’s new
Carolyn (pinch me!) pyjamas have a slightly sleek and tailored air to them; a body
skimming rather than blouse-y line, that in the right fabrics one could happily
wear outside the house if one so wished. 
Without looking like one is wearing pyjamas!
With that in mind, I chose to make my test pair in luxe-ish, not-bedwear but daywear like fabrics; namely silk hessian for the body of the top, poly organza for the sleeves and
a silk/cotton for the collar and cuffs. 
The little shorts are in a soft, lightweight polycotton.  These were all from the remnant table at
Fabulous Fabrics.
I chose to make view C with long sleeves on the top and leaving off any piping.  I love piping as much as the next person… however I felt piping in this shirt/shorts style IS going totally “pyjama” and I’m serious about wanting to wear my outfit out and about.  In the streets even!
The shirt is a classic, sleek, unfitted style, with notched collar and a gently curved hemline.  I felled the seams in the body of the top and French seamed those sheer sleeve seams.  The armscye seams were overlocked before stitching down to the shirt body to finish; faux felling, if you like!
The shorts are super quick and easy things to whip up, with satisfying huge
pockets.  The pockets are the same fold-back design
that Heather used in her Ginger jeans, which was the
very first time I had come across pockets like this in my 40+ yrs of sewing .  Yes, really! 
I’m starting to think of them as her signature pockets.
I made my shorts with the cuff as per the pattern, but sans piping and with the cuff invisibly stitched in place from inside the fold, so it appears to be a folded-up cuff.  I like this cuffed look on the bottom of shorty shorts like these  🙂

So… do I love the Carolyn pattern, well heck yes!  The shirt especially is an easy classic shape and tres chic, in my opinion.  I will definitely be making both pieces again, maybe even as actual pyjamas!
As for my fabric choices for my test sample here… well, I was using all remnants and my favourite part is the sheer and floaty, leaf organza sleeves, and I also love the strength of the black accent collar and cuff details.  However while the roughly textured, stone silk hessian seemed like a good idea at the time, now I’m not so sure if it’s letting down the rest of the ensemble.  Hmmmmm.  I’m gonna wear it for a while and sleep on it – by that I mean figuratively not literally, of course!   but don’t be surprised if a dye job or small subsitutory type of refashion happens on this bit in the near future!

Details:
Set; the Carolyn (eek!) pyjamas by Closet Case patterns, shirt in silk hessian, poly organza, silk cotton; shorts in polycotton

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Check-mate

… because I’ve made something in a check, and I’m accompanied by my best-est mate  🙂  The former, a rarity; the latter, far less so!
So, the searing-est of searing hot scorchers are but just around the corner, and like a war-wife stocking her air-raid shelter before the blitz, I am laying in supplies… I have made a new pair of shorts using Burda 7723, altered by lengthening and flaring the legs slightly, and adding a zip placket.
This is the eighth thing I’ve made using this pattern… yeah, so I’ve come to the conclusion that this pattern is one totally cruddy pattern which does not work for me at all… hehe, joking!  Just seeing if you were paying attention.  Obviously, this has been one of my favourite and most used patterns.
The green gingham was given to me by my friend C from her late mother’s stash.  I can tell it is a really old old fabric, a cotton gingham of a solidly satisfying quality you just don’t see very often anymore.  Seriously, I don’t want to come across all “oh-all-modern-stuff-is-crap-compared-to-the-good-old-days” since I think that is not true at all: but; a Case in Isolation…  like the proverbial man; good gingham is hard to find now.  This is a very good gingham; crisp, strong, thick and tightly woven.  The white has slightly yellowed to a pale-ly creamy ivory through age, but as this suits my colouring I consider it a plus.
Now.
There is actually something  rather special about my new shorts….  🙂
this is the very first garment fully made on my baby sewing machine; my tiny elna Opal, that lives in our beach house!  YES!  

I have used it for hemming curtains, but I really wanted to make a proper and complete “something” entirely using this weeny little machine while we were at the beach house, so took down everything I thought I might need.  Of course, I get started and quickly realise I did NOT have everything that I needed!  I remembered after the fact that I usually finish off a few internal raw edges in this pattern on my overlocker, which of course I did not have with me.  However, I did have a piece of white voile with me, which I had taken down just in case, like for pocket lining or something.  I did not use it for pocket lining, but it was sliced into bias strips and I finished off all the raw edges inside my new shorts with HongKong seaming.  This is a kinda high-end finish I would not normally bother with in a casual pair of shorts, so my overlocker’s absence really forced me to lift my game here!

Also, I also belatedly realised that my baby machine does not have a zip foot, meaning I had to insert the zip using its one and only foot, a regular wide one.  So the front fly top-stitching around the zip turned out a wee bit wonky… but that’s OK.  Seeing those sweetly crooked stitches on my machine’s very first garment is like looking at my child’s very first piece of kindergarten art.  
Likewise, the baby machine does not do buttonholes, that I can work out anyway: so instead I handstitched a keyhole buttonhole using embroidery thread in a tight blanket stitch.  Another example of a maybe higher quality finish than I would otherwise have employed!  Maybe I should make more things while I am away from my “real” sewing machines  😀

Just for fun, and “why not?” I added strips of bias-cut gingham in the pocket opening edges.  I was planning to put some welt pockets in the back with bias-cut welts too; but the unheard of happened, and disaster struck… I ran out of thread!  
(heard in Perth, all the way from Dunsborough)  “Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

Oh well.  It’s not like one ever uses rear pockets… they’re just for show and I guess there’s already plenty of visual interest happening with the check and all.  But once something is in my head and I haven’t been able to see it through; it’s Unfinished Business and niggles at me.  Hate that.  Maybe I’ll bring these shorts down again the next time and put those welt pockets in… maybe.  We’ll see.  🙂

Details:
Shorts; Burda 7723, green cotton gingham; my review of this pattern here
Top; the ponytail top from Pattern Magic 3 by Tomoko Nakamichi, green jersey, details here
Shoes; bensimon, from seed
Hat; Country Road

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Perchance to dream

I have made some rather daggy baggy shorts, but
don’t worry.  Style has not flown
out the window.  After today, these are my new summer
PJ bottoms!
I used a too-small-for-anything-else piece of polycotton, crazily colourful and wildly patterned; given to me by my friend C from her late mother’s stash.  It is very nice for summer PJ’s really; light and flowy yet closely woven and sturdy.  One just has to be careful about looking at that rather garish floral print.  Which I think I can manage, since I will be tucked up in bed with my eyes shut for most of the time I’ll be wearing it.

kidding! it’s actually rather luscious, don’t you think?

I made these using my usual pattern, adapted from off an old pair cut up yonks ago for this very purpose and from which I have made all my PJ bottoms for the past few years.
With added pockets naturally…. because; well, when it comes to the question of pockets in a garment, if one can then one does, amiright?
I gave them a decorative fly front, and found three purple buttons in my stash that are a pretty good match!
With regards to my white shirt here: no, that is not
sleepwear; but more a lame attempt to disguise the fact that I am, tut tut,
actually wearing my pyjama bottoms out in public; shock, horror.  Really for the top half of my PJ’s I’ll
be downgrading one of these little tees.   I opted not to wear said little tee out today because together
they really do unmistakably scream “PJ’s!!”  It’s the elastic waistband I think  (shudder)  Even
for Australia, even for the beach….. yeah, no.
Actually I had almost forgotten I even had this lovely
white shirt… which is pretty dumb of me since it is kinda perfect for the delightful spring weather we are having.  It’s
not too hot for it yet, and it gives really good coverage from the sun. I have
rediscovered my love for this shirt since seeing Merche’s truly fabulous version of this pattern.  Isn’t it great that
we can simultaneously wear our shirts on opposite sides of the world, despite
having opposite seasons?
a moment of reflection…  
Details:
Shorts; self drafted with the help of an old pair of
PJ’s, polycotton
Shirt; Burdastyle magazine 10/2010, shirt 102, lightweight
ivory cotton, details and my review of this pattern here
Hat; pilfered from my husband
Sienna; is wearing her own PJ’s as well…
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Bitumen hued shorts, with French fly

Ta da!
New shorts!
The funny thing about these is that during one of my regular stash sort-throughs, I had picked up this bit of fabric, shaken it out, sized it up, done one of those quick mental assessments (I’m sure you’re familiar with that) and designated it as a new pair of Burda 7723 shorts.  That was months ago.  Then distraction had set in  (I’m sure you’re all familiar with that too) and I had all but forgotten about it.
It was only until this week, doing the one-week-one-pattern challenge, and I was starting to wonder which Burda 7723 thing I would wear today, which would be the privileged “double-up”, so to speak, thus marking it as my favourite, when that potential pair of shorts suddenly popped into my head again.  Of course!  Now was the time…. I made these over the past few days, just in time to be included in the week of Burda 7723’s.
The fabric is very lovely, a very soft linen/cotton mix that crinkles up beautifully from Fabulous Fabrics, with a woven-in pinstripe of motley charcoal and ivory giving the fabric a gentle overall hue of variegated warm grey.  The pieces are the leftovers from this dress (which was transformed into a mini later and given to Cassie, giving me some more fabric to play with) and we had bought even more of this fabric later for Cassie to make herself a pair of trousers, so there were some leftovers from that project too.  Just enough for me to squeeze out the pieces for this fantastic pattern.
These shorts are pretty much made straight up to the pattern, except that they have back patch pockets and are flared just slightly.  Also I incorporated a French fly, after reading and giving some thought to the Waves series on the superior finishes often evident in menswear and lacking in womenswear.  Thinking about it made me decide to have a go at working out how to put in a French fly.
I checked out some of Craig’s really good suit trousers to get the general idea, and adapted the bare bones of the French fly principle to fit into my own pattern.  I did take some pictures during the process so I can do a tutorial if anyone is interested…?
The French fly performs the same duty as a waist stay.  Actually, it is the very same principle…  I know you cannot see any difference on the outside of the shorts, but I do feel like everything feels beautifully firm and pulled in.  What is more, the front of the shorts does sit a lot better with the French fly in place.  I’ve always thought the area right above the zip pull (meaning that bit you grab to pull the zip down) is the weak point on a pair of trousers/shorts.  The little bump of that zip pull, and the small empty space above it and just below the waistband, combined with the fact it is sitting right at the junction of zip/waistband where all the wearing strain is, often causes the shorts to bulge or gape a teensy bit at this point.   Having the French fly has pulled the shorts in nice and firmly right underneath that zip pull, taking the strain off at that spot and allowing the flap of the fly to sit down flat in a more relaxed way.

Details:
Shorts; Burda 7723, grey linen/cotton mix
Top; my own design, embroidered and cut-out ivory linen
Camisole (underneath); Country Road
Shorts; Bronx from Zomp shoes

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Hot pink shorts; 6 different ways

So, shorts, and particularly linen shorts are always going to be a warm weather thing and perhaps not an obvious candidate for “see how useful this item of clothing is!”….  But I am an Aussie after all, and typically lead a very relaxed and outdoorsy lifestyle that means shorts are an essential part of my wardrobe for just about half the year  (I wouldn’t choose to wear shorts in winter personally, although I’ve seen a few magazines trying to sell the idea of shorts-with-tights look; that’s just not for me, sorry…)
And I do like to use these 6 different ways posts to showcase garments that have proven themselves runaway useful little wardrobe builders, and that I have grabbed and put on regularly, and have enjoyed wearing.  And these shorts that I made using Burda 7723 are sure fitting into this category.
Ergo.
So here are just a selection of the daily outfits that I have worn including my pink shorts lately, each photo taken on each of the days that I wore them… and I’ve given a few thoughts on my styling choice and how I felt wearing each of these outfits on the day…
At left; I just wanted to try this one because this is the jacket designed to match these shorts in the very same pattern.  I felt a little oddly formal wearing this out and about, although I absolutely loved these colours together (reminded me of Frenchy’s fab outfit with the pink hair in Beauty School Dropout, Grease)  But maybe jacket-and-shorts together is not strictly “me”?  At right; with a chambray shirt, sleeves casually rolled up?  Definitely “me”!  A gardening and sewing day, bliss.

pink1

At left; felt quite fashion-y and rather dressed up in this outfit, even though it is actually just a linen shirt buttoned up and tucked in… I received a few compliments!  Worn out meeting up with some gal pals… At right; with my little white linen Pattern magic top.  Wore this out and about, walking the dog and running errands, and it felt like a perfect match.  Will wear this one over and over again…

pink2

At left; with a little coffee-coloured, triple-collared shirt, and a light cardi (to avoid sunburn)  I thought this cardigan would be a good colour match but was interested that it made my shorts look purple!   Loved wearing this, it was a great outfit for a cooler day, and I do prefer a cardi-with-shorts look…  At right; with a pale chartreuse loose linen top and matching scarf.  I really like the colour wheel opposites here, and the fact that the greens are so pale against the vividness of that pink peeking out underneath. And that it’s so comfy and cool…

pink3

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how this rather in-your-face, look-at-me colour has settled happily into my almost pink-less wardrobe, and how much I have enjoyed them… years of avoiding hot pink because of some misguided fear that it would mark me as “not serious”;  I think I’ve relaxed a bit!  So, which one of these outfits would be the most “you”, do you think?
(And fyi, the outfit I am wearing today is the last one with the pale chartreuse top and scarf.)

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Hot (pink) pants

G’day, peops!
Remember when I mentioned a piece of hot pink linen that had befriended me in the fabric store and then beseeched me to give it a new home and some purpose in its life?  (ahem) Well I’ve done the right thing by this piece of lolly-bright fabric fabulousness and transformed it into something that I am already excited about wearing a tonne of times this summer!  A bomb of times!  A colour bomb!  A Barbie bomb!  Wait, I doubt if Barbie is considered very cool, or even PC anymore…?  so mebbe scratch that one…
I used Burda 7723, again; my go-to shorts pattern now.  Such a nicely tailored shorts pattern; with a slight flare enough to make them “cute”, a wide high waistband that sits securely and firmly at one’s true waist, and good sized pockets.  The last feature making it a definite win all by itself…  I also think this shape just really suits my style and my figure too, I think.  In the past I’ve altered this pattern slightly each time I’ve made it up; to make them more flared, flat-fronted and longer respectively, but this time I made it up just as is.   Oh, except for my usual modification; the addition of a zip placket.  Well, naturally why wouldn’t you put in a zip placket? uses hardly any fabric and you see them in even the cheapest and most badly made RTW shorts so it is completely beyond me why patterns continue to leave this minor, but telling little detail out.  I once did a sort of tutorial on how to add a zip placket to any fly-front pattern, here.

Now just to diverge for a sec into photography territory again, I know lots of other fashionable seamsters aren’t interested in the slightest in photography; but I am.  So …
I first thought of photographing this ensemble against a bright white wall, in the strong midday sunlight; thinking that the intense shades of cobalt blue and hot pink would stand up well to the lighting challenge.  But I was still a bit amazed at the incredibly deep shadows created… also I realised that you couldn’t see the shorts properly with the tie thing-y in the front hanging over the front of the shorts.  So I tucked in the top, and moved over to a shady spot.  But the photos I took, even though they don’t show the shorts very well, still intrigued me in an artistic sense so I decided to put one in here as well.  And btw; I do not photoshop or alter my photos apart from cropping.  This is how it is!  (although oftentimes I wish my face could always be in shadow like this…)
When you look at pictures of clothes, do you prefer realism; as in showing the dressmaking details as accurately as possible; or do you like to see a bit of artistry in the photography as well?  Me, I know I like a bit of both…  but I’ve said enough about that in the past so I won’t repeat myself.
What aspect of fashion photography do you appreciate the most?
Details:
Top; blue “bunches”, from Pattern Magic 3, of thin cobalt blue cotton jersey, details here
Shorts; Burda 7723, hot pink linen

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Dressing for the office…

hehe…
No really, this is what I wore to the office, today!  I know it appears that I spend all of my time gallivanting about in the great outdoors, and let’s face it, the pictorial evidence is here that I am out and about communing with nature most days… but I do actually have a job.  Very fortunately for me we have an office at home and I am quite allowed to dress for my office anyway I choose.  Every now and again I do feel compelled to dress up all smartish, like I am “going to work” and need to feel appropriately apparelled to get in the mood.  Sometimes I do have to get dressed up, for some work-related stuff.  But it’s nice that I don’t always have to, I guess otherwise I wouldn’t want to every once in a while.
Anyway, introducing here some new shorts!
(Dressmaking details lower, if you’re interested…)

Details:
Shorts; much modified Burda 7723, yellow embroidered cotton, details below
Top; Butterick 4985, baby blue embroidered cotton with lace pockets and a lace tie (normally hanging down the front, not the back; it’s a bit windy today)
Thongs; Mountain Designs
Nail varnish; Glamourpuss, BYS

The shorts are made using my old favourite Burda 7723, out of fabric I bought before Christmas, so it hasn’t been a super long-term stash resident.  I was originally planning a little skirt but by the time I decided I wanted shorts it had sold out from the fabric store, and I had to make do with what I had.  Even so, I managed to make my usual modifications to this pattern, namely adding as much length as I could (about 6-7cm) and flaring the legs as much as I could (roughly a few cm)
The fabric is a lovely very strong acidic yellow cotton, with heavily embroidered flowers.  The embroidery on these flowers is extremely thick, and actually on the wrong side of the fabric the back of the embroidery is just as thickly interwoven with yarn as the front, which made working with it a little tricky.  To remove bulk (and because of the fabric shortage) I used the fashion fabric for only the upper part of the pocket and yoke piece, attaching pieces of a much thinner cotton for the invisible lower parts of the pocket.  Like wise, the same plain fabric was used for the pocket piece, and for the waistband facing.

Also because of bulkage, and fabric shortage, I drafted the pattern to be flat-fronted, and removed the pleat that is at the front of this pattern.
Also added a zip placket… I took a few pictures of this very simple modification.  This is such an easy thing to add to your waist-banded pants and shorts; I don’t know why the pattern companies don’t always have it as a standard feature.  You simply overlock the raw edges of a strip of fabric, folded wrong sides together.   This little bit was from the selvedge, and so unembroidered…  Interesting side-note?  I had previously used up most of the selvedge already for another project, here.

Then you sew it in place behind the left front of your zip.

Finally, when adding the waistband you then enclose the top end in the waistband along with the rest of the top end of your shorts.  Voila.  Super easy, and you’ll never have to worry about cold zip teeth against your tender tummy skin again, or even worse, skin getting caught in zipper teeth… ouch.

You can probably just make out in this close-up here where I had to remove an embroidered flower from the right front fly area, just to fold the fabric sufficiently get the zip in.  Seriously, those flowers are a lot bulkier than they look, no kidding I had about a whole handful of thread from just taking out this one flower here… I had to do the same thing several times along the waistband too.
I found this perfect button, made of coconut shell.   Unfortunately you couldn’t just buy one button, like I wanted, they came in packs of four…  Tres cute, no…?  Now I just have to find some project that is going to be perfect for those remaining three buttons…

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Burdastyle 10-2010-111A, a pattern review

Remember I wrote I’d made some matching shorts to wear under this little sundress?  Well, here they are.  Whew, they are so so short and flimsy I probably wouldn’t be wearing them on their own like this if I didn’t have a completely quiet non-sociable day dog-walking and house-cleaning planned, oh, yeah, hehe and of course a bit of office work too (I have to say that bit because my husband sometimes reads this…)  These little things are no more substantial than boxer shorts, so I feel a bit underdressed in them here.  But on the beach I was OK since there were not many people, and those that I did encounter today were equally if not more sparsely attired.
Actually I made these about 2.5-3cm longer than the pattern stipulated, as long as my scrap of fabric allowed me to make them, so can you imagine how tiny these would be otherwise?

Details:
Shorts; Burdastyle magazine 10-2010-111A, Japanese cotton
Top; “b” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa, white cotton
Sunnies; RayBan

Here is the review I submitted for this pattern:

Pattern Description: 
Shorts with fly front, faced waist, welt pockets, slanted front pockets and underlay with button for internal closure.  This pattern basically does for three different garments in the magazine; short shorts, bermudas, and longer trousers, with a few different pattern pieces and modifications.  To save myself future effort, I traced out the pieces and variations for all three at the same time.
Pattern Sizing:
34-42.  I traced a size36, graduating out at the hips to a size 38 because I like a bit of flare, plus I was using flimsy fabric that wouldn’t have looked nice in a form-fitting garment.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished sewing it?
yes
Were the instructions easy to follow?
Now here I have to be honest and say no, they were not, particularly!  If you’ve never sewed a welt pocket before, the instructions provided for sewing these would be awfully confusing.  I’ve sewn plenty, and these instructions still had me scratching my head a bit over what was the joining line, the abutting line and the stitching line.  And as for the instructions for the underlay, zip and the waist facing, well these were VERY confusing also.  When I read the instructions out aloud to my family it sounds hilarious because they are so crazy confusing….  like trying to build a space station or something…  I misunderstood the zip attachment and sewed the zip in place with a nice curved topstitching on the shorts front.  This turned out to be wrong.  Right near the end I had an a-ha moment and had to unpick the zip almost completely to do it the right way NOT attached the the shorts front, but only the facing, so I could insert the waist facing all neatly tucked in and finished around the zip tape and underlay as the pattern intended.  This was one of those times when an illustration ala how the envelope patterns do it would have helped a tonne.
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I like that only a tiny amount of fabric is needed for these shorts.  I think I had roughly 60-70cm of 115cm fabric, which was just enough except for pocket innards, for which I used other scraps.  The pattern is well drafted and fits together well.  I like the clean lines of the shorts, no pleating or waistband gives them a contemporary and streamlined look.
What I don’t like; if I’d made them up to the pattern they would have been too short for my liking!
Fabric Used:
Lightweight cotton.  The pattern recommends brushed wool.  I think a thicker fabric like this would work really well.
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I added about 2.5-3cm in length.  These would have been way too short for me to wear out in public otherwise!
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Yes, I do recommend this cute little pattern, and now I “get” the instructions I will sew these again in a more appropriate fabric, such as corduroy, and definitely adding the extra length.  Although if you are under the age of twenty, the shorter length would be fine.
Conclusion:
I sewed these to wear under a short little sundress of the same fabric, for modesty.  Their streamlined non-bloomer-y shape makes them perfect for this purpose.  So I am very happy with them.

 

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