Saturday 17 May 2014

It's hot; I have made shorts.

Brits abroad!  Whoa!

It's all sunny and TButton doesn't own a single pair of shorts!  Let the crisis-sewing commence.

I drafted some shorts in "age 2" from the Aldrich book (which I have many reservations about, but at least the baby trouser block is reliable for cloth nappies).  I wasn't sure if the shorts would fit, because he was asleep when I drafted them so I couldn't take any measurements.  Therefore, I was determined to make them from some fabric in my stash that I wasn't keen on and I'm certainly not keen on these shorts!!!

The good news is that they turned out to fit pretty well.  The bad news is that he's now going to have to wear them if it gets any hotter.  They remind me of shirtless overweight motor-boat owners holding cans of lager.  (Sorry.)  Brits abroad!  ARGH!

I didn't have enough cotton flag fabric or blue polycotton to make the full shorts, hence the mix-and-match legs.  I was hoping that plain blue would tone the flags down a bit, but somehow they're even worse.  Mum gave me the flag print to make myself a Geri-Halliwell-style union dress about 12 years ago, but the fabric wouldn't even union-up my left leg now (boo hoo).  Sorry about being rude about your fabric, Mum.  I hope you like the shorts!

The back is still nasty!  Woo hoo!
 
The back has an elasticated waistband, but the front waistband is plain.  There's plenty of room for his cloth-booty.

No about of clever fly detailing will make these shorts a pleasure to put on.
I made a super-low-opening fly to make them easy to get on, with sneaky poppers that are hidden when they're closed.  The waistband has a button fastening with some slightly aged white button I found in my jar.  He's lucky the button wasn't pink.

At least I know the pattern is okay, so I can make more shorts in less nasty fabric.  I've got some reasonable denim and some pale blue linen, and I might buy him some nicer beige twill.  Meanwhile, at least he's not going to swelter in trousers.

I named the pattern "Mizzen Shorts", which is a pleasing sail reference.  After some sail fact trading with Mr Button (who has never heard of a Rotor Sail), he alerted me to the Water Sail.  Wow, that's a funny sail: looks like the boat's pants are falling down.

EDIT:

It got really hot this afternoon, and TButton tried his new man-wear to play with some water in the garden.  Rock those shorts, Toddler.

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