Shorts and jeans

It was raining yesterday and it's raining/snowing again today.  Maddie and I made the most of it by doing a little photo shoot of two new pairs of shorts I made her for this upcoming summer along with the pair of jeans I started for her months ago but lost and just recently found and finished.

MJ's favorite color lately is orange so I bought this cute orange gingham fabric in a lovely cotton/lyrca knit.  They are wonderfully stretchy and they seem very comfortable on her.  The two or three times she's seen them out (in the middle of being made) she puts them on over whatever pants she's wearing.  I'm glad she likes them so much.  :)

Maybe I should back up.  Last year I saw a series of tutorials about making kids shorts by Dana.  I've been wanting to try some of her ideas ever since but I didn't feel like I had a very good selection of fabric for making kids clothes.  Mainly I just wanted something really soft with a little bit of stretch that was cotton.  

Then my birthday came in January and I went shopping for fabric!  It helps that I found a place to buy bathing suit fabric and board short fabric along with some great cotton knit fabric at (don't laugh) the fabric fairy.  Funny name, I know, but I highly recommend buying fabric from them.  It is quality for a reasonable price.  Madeleine and I were both in heaven when our package arrived with all of this in it.  

This is post washing so some of the edges had curled up.  *Tip* wash cotton knits before you make clothes out of them.  Some didn't shrink much at all and some shrank quite a bit.

Madeleine's face was priceless when I brought the package inside from the doorstep.  She must have been reflecting my own excitement because she didn't know what it was.  Her jaw dropped and said "oh!"  We had a great time pulling each one out and admiring what her summer shorts, my maternity skirts, and our suimsuits and board shorts would be made of.  I would lay out a cut of fabric and she would walk to the middle, sit down, look at me and smile. 

Okay, back to her shorts.  The orange gingham is just a basic shorts pattern I made from some of Maddie's existing pants, plus a side pocket.  Remember when Mom tried to make Alicia a pair of shorts?  I do.  :)  And I love how she laughs at herself when we tells someone about it.  The crotch was a huge wide arch and she sewed the pockets shut.  Well, I managed to put pockets in this first pair of shorts without sewing them closed!  Good trying all those years ago, Mom; and thanks for showing me to laugh at my mistakes!

Can you see the little side pocket?  It's hard to see; I think next time I will use a contrasting fabric--good old solid white would have done the trick.  At any rate I think Madeleine will like having a place to put dirt and rocks and old berries and other treasures she's fond of finding outside.

Next up are some patriotic themed shorts I made.  I wanted to try putting a lining in like Dana and so I did on these shorts.  It was as much for my own satisfaction of learning how to do lining as it was for a little added warmth so that she can wear them on some of the first warm days that will hopefully come to us soon.

I attached it a little differently than normal and if my dream of being a great photographer and having a sewing blog were a reality I would show you how I did it... maybe someday.  I attached them together at the waist and then folded the outer fabric under and sewed them together around the pant legs.

And last but not least I finally finished Maddie's pants that I retrofitted for her from a pair of Matt's old jeans.  Turns out that jean fabric frays a lot so I used Melory's surger to finish most of the inside edges off and keep all the runaway threads at bay. The pant length is perfect but I wish I had made the top of the pants a little longer/higher.  They stay on her hips but sag a little.  I think I may redo the top and add some dark ribbed knit to feed the elastic through and get the full length of the jeans to cover her diaper and lower back a bit better.

That's it for now.  :)