Tuesday 28 February 2012

Camo shorts and loud pyjamas Burda 07-2009-113

During the weekend, I was discussing with daughter-the-first her upcoming 2 week trip to New South Wales, and her Autumn/Winter wardrobe needs. She claimed that she has plenty of Winter clothes, but is sorely lacking in Summer garments.
I think it is more likely that she is finding her Summer clothes boring, as she has been wearing most of them since about September.
Being a pushover slightly indulgent parent at times, I made her some shorts, but did not work too hard.
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These are the fourth pair of Burda 07-2009-113 shorts I have made for her, so they were not only already traced out, but pre adjusted, which makes them very quick to sew. They were still lying on my sewing table (but back in the bag) from when I made them in January in blue and white seersucker. I am not terribly virtuous when it comes to putting away my patterns.

I used a remnant of camo printed heavy cotton twill, given to me by a friend of my mother, and used scraps of my quilting cotton dressing gown fabric for the pocket bags, waistband binding and zipper guard.
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This, according to my sewing accounting system, makes them free shorts, if I ignore the thread and zipper, a practice that comes easily to me when I am gloating about my thriftiness.
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There is a bit of decorative machine stitching on the front pockets, fly and hems, and I added a back patch pocket with a bit more decorative stitching.

The pattern calls for the shorts to be turned up in a cuff, but the original pair of shorts, made with cuff, suffers from lack of ironing, (as I do not iron clothes for persons over the age of 12 unless suitably bribed rewarded),and subsequent cuff wrinkliness, so after discussion with the recipient, I left the hems at the slightly longer length than Burda intended.

At this point I had not completely expunged my attack of thriftiness. I cut out a pair of pyjama shorts, using the same pattern without darts, side seam shaping or fly, and the larger remants of the dressing gown fabric, which had been lifted from the floor, but not removed from the sewing table. I attached 2 ties to elastic and enclosed these in the waistband with buttonholes at the front.
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Nearly instant, free pyjama shorts.
+Slightly grateful daughter
+ Slightly less messy sewing table
= Free pass to sew frivolous, unnecessary silk dress, not on any wardrobe plan or sewing list until I saw Cidell's post this morning.
Does that sound reasonable to you?

10 comments:

shams said...

LOL. Yes, both garments are so cute for daughter!! Conscious should now be cleared for fun sewing for self.

velosews said...

Oh yeah. Both shorts are really great. I love the reward for chores system you have implemented. Go ahead, make your dress:)

Karin said...

Win, win, win! Your a nice mommy. I think we all get roped into this stuff. She's bound to get lots of wear out of the shorts. Perhaps they'll even still fit next year!
Looking forward to seeing your more self-indulgent sewing;-)

Anonymous said...

You are definitely cleared for making something frivolous for yourself. After all, you did do some selfless sewing and got a bit of cleanup in to boot! ;-)

Sewing Geek said...

Silk dress sewing totally allowed now. You are a very virtuous individual for putting your DD's needs first. :). Good job all around.

Mary Nanna said...

It sounds very reasonable. Are you planning to make that silk dress from the Burda pattern Cidell used?

I have made that pattern and it's very sweet. I am about to remake it into a skirt- the fabric I used was a little stiff for the job and very frou frou - my husband says it looks good but I feel I need a more tailored look now.

I think you would look wonderful in it and recommend you use a silk with really good drape - think crepe or habotai, certainly nothing with too much body like dupioni.

Hmmm, I think now I am officially your chief enabler with regards to the sewing of silk dresses.

Ruth said...

Go for it.

Sharon said...

Great shorts and enjoy your reward guilt free.

Carolyn said...

The top stitching is fabulous! I love how you apply these funky stitches to your garments!
Frivolous sewing well deserved....

Anonymous said...

Love the camo shorts! I do the same regarding cuffs on my shorts, being allergic to ironing.

On the subject of ironing, my mother implemented a similar policy. Since when my brothers played cricket, they had to turn up in properly ironed whites, they learnt to iron very well.

Years later my youngest brother got together with an Italian woman, who was extremely impressed that he not only knew how to iron his own clothes but did as a matter of course.

Which left my mother and I wondering who else on earth she thought might have done it for her.

Possibly Italian mamas and sisters aren't allergic to ironing like me and my mother are?

And yes, definitely time for indulgence, I think!