I'm a little late with the last post of the week, sorry. Yesterday was so dark and rainy we couldn't take any pictures (hence the wellies).

the fabric: this awesome star fabric is from JoAnn's country club collection. I only remember the name because it's hilarious. The fabric is a really nice bottomweight print, which I have the hardest time finding.

the pattern: half pants pattern letter S from Happy Homemade vol. 5 I've made the pants version of this pattern before--here--but added all kinds of piping and pockets.

the sewing: I made this pattern last summer, but never got around to finishing them. Ever do that? Well the half finished shorts don't fit this year, but I liked the pattern so much I traced a bigger size. The pattern is nicely tailored and the tiny pocket is adorable, even if it's totally useless.  I have to say, these skinny star shorts are pretty much the bomb: simple, long, good for school and play. I think this would work well for boys too, maybe in a size up from what they normally wear so it's not so, so tight.

Each day in the flickr pool has been better than the last. On this, the final day of kcwc, your handmade clothes are pretty much blowing my mind. Check out these amazing garments:

1. yoke dress for kcwc

2. striped dress

3. robot baseball tee with rainbow stripes

4. organic cotton pj's

Sometimes the idea is much more exciting than the actual outcome. But still matching, stripy pants and shorts are pretty cute

the pattern: same as these pants, letter o from Happy Homemade vol 2 in two sizes. This was totally the wrong pattern to use for the shorts, but the perfect one for the pants.  The idea I had for the shorts was something more like this, but then I got all wrapped up in saving the pockets from the original pants (see below). The front pockets were nice, slash pockets, but the back ones, I discovered later, were fake. It was a waste of time and energy and screwed up my plan.

the fabric: those pants up there. They were mine, but I felt like a fool every time I walked out of the house in them.

the sewing: I didn't intend to get two garments out of one pair of pants. I was only going to make shorts and really to make the shorts I wanted to make--bloomers with a contrasting band--I shouldn't have made the pants. Oh well. The little pants turned out super cute and the shorts are fine, I guess.

The flickr pool is bursting with amazing garments, many of them upcycled ones. Of all the discussions on flickr this week, my favorite has to be the one about all our mistakes and straight up sewing failures. Late at night, when I'm screwing up every possible way, it's good to know I'm not alone!

1. pinafore made reversible 

2. top naii

3. raglan tee

4. stripe and color block top

posting a project I did for grosgrain's free pattern month:

Meg from elsie marley here and I'm very happy to be a part of all of this fantastic freeness on Grosgrain this month. For my contribution I'm going to show you how to alter a plain old pants pattern into one that will make super cute shorts for your little girl: knot shorts!

Materials

• an existing kid's shorts or pants pattern
• one yard material
• quarter yard (or so) contrasting material for facing
• elastic (1 inch wide, or whatever you have lying around)
• freezer paper, or some other paper to trace patterns

It might seem silly that for free pattern month, you first need to have a pattern. But making a kid's pants pattern is easy as pie--you just trace some kid pants. Dana from Made has a very clear tutorial for making pants patterns that you can check out if you don't have a pattern on hand. I have only made these for kids, but I don't see why altering a grown up pattern in the same way wouldn't work just as well.

Directions

1. First you need to trace your pattern onto pattern paper, or newsprint, or I like to use freezer paper.

2. Now you need to decided how long the inseam on your knot shorts will be. I made mine 4 inches long. This is a medium length pair of shorts on a 5 year old girl. A one or two inch inseam sounds scandalous, but I've made knot shorts that short and they look great. And besides, kids have very short legs, so it's really not that short at all.

2. Whatever length inseam you choose divide it in half and make a mark. From that mark draw a line through the pattern and extend it 6 inches past the outer seam of the pants.

3. From the end of the line draw a nice curve down to the bottom of the shorts. And draw another line that gracefully curves up to meet the outer seam.

4. Repeat the process for the back pattern piece.

5. To make the facing for the shorts, first trace the front pattern piece. Then on your new piece, draw a straight line from the crotch (ugh, I can't stand that word) to where the tie begins to curve out. Cut on that line. This will be your facing pattern.

6. Now that the pattern is made you can cut your fabric. Cut two front pieces and two back pieces out of your main fabric. From the contrasting fabric cut 4 facing pieces.

7.  Sew two facing pieces together, on the short straight side, right sides facing. Then serge or hem the long straight edge on top. Do this  for the other set of facing pieces as well.

8. Sew the inseam together on both legs of the shorts.

9. Open up one leg of the shorts and put the facing on top-- as above--right sides facing.

10. Sew all around except where you hemmed (or serged). Clip the corners, turn out, and press.

11. Sew down the outer seams on both legs of the shorts. Stop right after you catch a bit of the facing, then backstitch a few times to secure.

12. Turn one leg inside out and the other right side out

13. Put the right side out leg inside the inside out leg--now the right sides are together. Sew all around the crotch (that word again, ugh).

14. Turn it out and press. You should have a very funny looking pair of shorts.

15. Make sure you have thread that matches exactly to your main fabric, then sew around the top of the facing to attach it to the shorts. Or if you want the seam to be even more invisible, you can sew it by hand.

16. Tie the knots, silly!

17. Fold the top edge under and press. Sew around to make a casing for the elastic. Insert elastic, insert child to see if they fit, sew up elastic and seam and ta da! Knot shorts!

I hope you enjoyed the knot shorts tutorial! Thanks so much for having me, Kathleen!

I am just under the wire with this post. Today is (was) the last day of the kids clothes week challenge and I am all challenged out. With the little bit of sewing mojo I had left,  I managed to finish--well almost finish--this tank top for my son today. I'm not totally on board with the whole sewing with knits thing yet, but I picked up a bit of the softest blue striped knit at the thrift store and I had to at least try. So I faked it and pretty much made it.

A matching one for his little brother is in the works. The shorts I eeked out from some random thrift store yardage as well. I had to use some scraps for the pocket, but it's kind of a cool detail I think. They are from the same pattern I've been using all week and I think I could sew it in my sleep at this point.

It was a stripey kind of day in the flickr pool. I want to eat that little shiso baby up, she's so cute. Check out all the matching outfits Mimi made for the whole shiso family!

1. fashion show sunday 2. flat from shorts 3. sailboat top 4. linen pants

It's been a pretty damn fantastic week, I have to say. But there will be much reminiscing and showing off and patting each other on the back this week, and maybe even a prize or two. Did you have a good time? Or do you never want to look at your sewing machine again?

There are a bunch of projects that for some reason I never got around to posting this summer--probably because I was lying around in a pool of my own sweat, but now ahhhh fall is here and I feel human again.  And now my camera is broken, so all you are going to get for a while are whatever old projects I took pictures of. Sorry.

These shorts were a sucessful project all around: they looked like I imagined and my daughter loved them. I took a simple shorts pattern and added a long narrow triangle on the side (this is where my camera would come in handy), sewed a facing onto the triangles--a pink flower print that my daughter picked out--and then sewed the shorts up. They tie on both sides and the little pink flowers stick out just enough to be cute, but not cutesy. And hey, I made that shirt too. I made an adult size shirt I got at the dig n save into a kid size one: I took it in on the sides, reattached the (shortened) sleeves and hemmed the neckline.  I need to do this more often I think.

These shorts came from my well worn copy of Everyday Bottoms.  They are just plain old shorts, except they have a million details that made them take forever to finish:  pockets in the front, pockets in the back, flat felled seams, belt loops, double elastic casing, and then I had to go and use stripes so I had to (almost) match them.

But they held up all summer and will fit next year too. I'm crap at finishing garments properly; at some point I loose interest making it and just want the sewing to be over already, so I'm extra happy about these shorts. Everything is done on these shorts and stitched twice even.

These projects (and a few others I never took pictures of) are the products of leftover motivation from the kids clothes week challenge in the spring. It put me in the mindset that I didn't need to buy any clothes for my kids because I could just make some silly.  There are almost a hundred of you signed up for the fall challenge already! Yee haw! Which is great because all that leftover motivation has gone stale and I need some of the fresh stuff.

p.s. some of you are having problems with the kcwc buttons and I really want to help, but I don't know how.  If there are any of you more html savvy than I am could you head over to the comments and help them out. thanks!