How time flies...

I had a quick little bloggy break over the last couple of days... except that quick as a flash, the four day Melbourne Cup long weekend is over!

Not much craft has been happening, and Nico's shorts didn't get finished in time for the birthday party, but here they are. Better late than never I suppose. I'm sure a 2 year old won't notice that one of his pressies is a little bit late.

This is the Burda 9793 pattern again - size 2 shorts.


I ended up having an extremely busy weekend. My BIL had back surgery last week and is in hospital, so I've been helping out my sister with babysitting duties (so she can visit hubby) and 'witching hour assistance'.

She left me at her nice clean house yesterday, and by the time she arrived home, it looked like a tornado had hit. I swear that they all ran off in different directions just so I couldn't catch them. There were a couple of disagreements over a pair of sunglasses, and a UNO card, but all the cheeky grins and cuddles made up for that at the end of the day.

I'm going to need a holiday by the time this all over!

Moo-tylicious

I spotted this seriously cute cow print fabric over at Nikki's blog last week.
Lucky for me, Nikki very generously gifted me some so that I could whip up a new outfit for Moo Moo.

Target t-shirt - Shorts made using the denim from a $1 pair of jeans from the oppy. It took me longer to change the thread colour on the overlocker, than it did to whip up the shorts.

I haven't stitched around the bulls head on the shorts. I used Applifix to fuse it to the shorts, and I'm very interested in how it's going to wash and wear in comparison to vliesofix.

This is the strong muscle man pose apparently!

He really liked his new outfit - the shorts are not going to last long..... they're looking a little bit too small. Luckily he has little twin brothers to take the hand-me downs. I think I'm going to have to quickly make a larger version.


....and just to make absolutely sure - they also passed the trampoline test!

Moo Moo turns Two

It's Moo Moo's birthday today so I whipped him up a pair of superstar shorts.

I found this great corduroy at the oppy last week, and I used a bit of vinyl offcut for the star.
He opened up the package and was much more interested in the Freddo Frog that came with them!

Ok enough already.....

I promise that this is the very last time you'll see any photos of shorts for the rest of the year.
I'm not good at sweat shop sewing... I get really bored making the same thing over and over and over and over...... so this is the end of it.
Two more little pairs of size 1 shorts for Nico.

Size 8 for Master B.

and Size 10 for Master X.

I've never tried to make big boys shorts before so I really hope they fit.

After all of those shorts, it's time for something girly again. Stacey suggested that the op-shop fabric would look really nice as a skirt, so I've dragged out the skirt pattern that I bought months ago from Clegs to give it a whirl.

I'm hopeless at following instructions but I did actually try to read them properly before I started this time (even though it's really boring). So far I've cut out the pieces that I need, and I've managed to iron and sew the four pleats back to front...... needless to say, that I'm now taking a frustration break before I go back and unpick and try again!

I'm a little nervous because the skirt has a side zipper, and I've only attempted to sew in a zipper three times in my life, and never into an item of clothing..... so it could all go terribly terribly wrong.

In other news, I decided not to send christmas cards this year, because it would have been just too weird to send them just from me...... but today I received a joint christmas card in the mail. Clearly, there are some people who are still a little behind the times. I really thought the gossip would have spread like wildfire.. but it seems I'm mistaken.

More shorts

I found this corduroy remnant while searching through the fabric stash yesterday. There was just enough to make a pair of size 2 shorts for Moo Moo.

I went in search of fabric to make some shorts for my older nephews yesterday, but there wasn't much to choose from at Spotlight. Most of the prints were to babyish for 8 and 10 year olds. I ended up picking up some plain cotton drill and some camouflage cotton drill. I'm hoping to finish those off tomorrow and that will be the end of the shorts making spree!

The list is getting shorter

Another one has been ticked off the handmade christmas list. This appliqued tee and matching shorts set is for Moo Moo. I think he'll like the puppy dogs.

The sewing / craft supplies have been packed up for the day. The house buyers bank is sending a valuer around to do a house valuation today, so I've had to turn the kitchen back into a space where one could cook a meal, or even eat a meal on the table, if they so chose, rather than being the headquarters of the CurlyPops handmade christmas sweatshop.

I've even left yesterdays op shop purchases in the boot of my car just so I don't add any more crap to the house (until after he's finished valuing anyway)!

I'll be back to my mission tomorrow.

The long and the short of it

I'm still madly sewing away, trying to tick pressies off the handmade christmas list...

I found this groovy fabric at Savers a few weeks ago on one of my adventures with Big Cat. It's a really heavy cotton and there was about 2 metres in total.


The little girl who is receiving the twirly skirt has a big brother who is 4 years old, so I made him what was supposed to be a pair of shorts (obviously my pattern adjusting skills leave a lot to be desired). I think these will end up being more like knickerbockers, but I think they'll still look really cute with a blue t-shirt and a pair of brown leather sandals.

These ones are for a friends little boy who is 1.75 years old.... so somewhere in-between the 18 months sizing and size 2 clothing. I'm really hoping that these ones fit, but at least they actually look like shorts, and not knickerbockers.

Now, back to the list!

Shorts.....or longs?

Now that the weather is getting warmer, I thought I should try to graduate from making kids pants, and attempt to make some shorts instead, using the mens Rip Curl shirt that I found at the oppy last week.

Nice overlocked seams.......as you can probably tell, I made these on Tuesday (before I broke my bloody overlocker)!

Anyhow, somewhere amongst the 100th time I've had to clean up the craft supplies for a house inspection, I've managed to lose the pattern that I bought for shorts. But never fear, I decided to make my own instead. Using the vintage size 2 pants pattern, I sized it down to what I thought should be size 1, and then made the legs at the length that I thought would be perfect for shorts.

In theory, this method should have worked. They looked like shorts when I laid them on the outdoor table to take a photo.

It was then time to take them over to Nico's house for a test fitting........

So, are they shorts or longs?