OWOP Day Two: Bike shorts

No, not those kind of bike shorts. I made another pair of shorts from McCalls 5458. They're so good for biking in since I'm paranoid about getting my dresses caught in the back wheel.

For day two of OWOP I wore my shorts with another version of Butterick 9405. I haven't shown you this one either even though I finished it ages ago. It's made from some linen/cotton blend London themed fabric. I didn't actually like London much when I went as a kid. The sheer number of people was slightly terrifying for a seven year old from New Zealand.

The buttons on my shorts are from Madelaine of Look, Make, See, Do. I bought a couple of patterns from her etsy shop a while ago and she very sweetly sent me some notions as well including these vintage buttons still on their card. They are perfect because red is my favourite colour and, for some reason, red buttons are hard to find here.

Lemon Tart

These are the "real" version of the shorts I showed you in my last post. The fabric is a drill cotton with lemons on it from (where else?) the kids section at Spotlight. I wanted the lemons to run across the shorts sideways so I cut the fabric on the crosswise grain rather than parallel to the selvedge.

I forgot to mention the best part in my last post. There's a pocket! I love pockets.

I accidentally made this pair a smidgen too big. I cut the waistband extra long because in the last pair I had to do it in two pieces as I didn't have enough fabric. I can't be bothered unpicking the waistband to take them in though.

You can kind of see the buttons up the side. They're plain white ones from my favourite button op shop. Buttons are pretty much the only thing I ever find there, but they always have a good selection.

I wore these and the other shorts while I was in Wellington and I have to say, I'm a bit of a shorts convert. They were pretty comfy for walking around in and I didn't have to worry about flashing my knickers because of the wind.

Little Bo Peep

My nephew: "That's a nice...what is that? A skirt? Dress?"
Me: "Shorts. They're shorts."

It's probably unsurprising that my seven year old nephew couldn't quite figure out what I was sewing given that I haven't worn a pair of shorts for a few years. Shorts aren't really my thing. Until a couple of weeks ago I didn't even own a pair, unless you count my PE shorts from when I was 13. I decided that I needed a pair for my trip to Wellington because it's a notoriously windy city and I didn't want to spend the whole time holding down my skirts.

This is my wearable muslin pair, made from some vintage cotton that my Mum gave me. She op shopped the fabric years ago. It has a girl playing with a sheep or goat or some other animal on it. My nephew reckons it's a dog but I'm pretty sure you're not meant to feed dogs grass.

I used McCall's 5458 from July 1960. I left off the bows and used buttons up the side instead of a zip. There was only a metre of fabric so I had to do some creative piecing together to fit it all in.



Since I didn't have a top that matched the shorts (oh, the horror), I had to make one. I used the Port Elizabeth pattern, which is free on burdastyle and which I have made about six times now. The fabric is some apple green broderie anglaise with flowers printed on it.

I've also made my final pair but haven't got a photo of them, yet. They are bright yellow with lemons on them. I mean, you didn't expect me to make sensible shorts did you?