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?

Port Elizabeth Top

I downloaded the Port Elizabeth top by Goldfinch & Eagle from Burdastyle weeks ago but only printed it out this week because I don't like the cutting out and taping together. Making up for lost time, I ended up sewing three of these in two days. I really love this pattern. It's so simple and stylish. I only made one change- instead of using bias binding on the neckline I drafted facings. This was mostly because I didn't have any bias binding that went with the fabrics and I don't actually know how to make it.
I made the first one using some floral fabric my Mum gave me from her stash.

I made this one in about half an hour before I went to uni on Wednesday morning and then wore it. The fabric was the skirt of an ugly 90's dress I got at the op-shop.

I used an old gingham shirt my Mum was going to throw away for this one. I cut the front of the top from the back of the shirt and the back of the top from the front of the shirt (if that makes sense) so that the buttons were down the back. As you have probably guessed by now I have a slight obsession with things that button down the back. I had to put a snap at the top to keep it closed because I couldn't cut it so there was a button there.

I think I will be making a whole pile of these for Self-Stitched September.