Short and Happy

After thoroughly confusing myself over styles for body shapes and disgusted with myself for spending far too much time on the subject I decided to cheer myself up with some simple crafting projects I had been meaning to start/ finish for some time:

On the left is a rose I'm making into a brooch for my Day Bag (finished but not yet posted about) and on the right is a ladies boot key ring in a fabric I adore. I drew the sole on with fabric pens and ironed it fast (hopefully!). It's a little too big for my key ring so I may make it into a handbag charm instead. I'm undecided over whether to sew laces across the front seam as I'm unsure if they would even be noticeable with the fabric print being so strong or if it would make it too busy. Both projects are from Tone Finnanger's Books which can be found here.

And then whilst catching up on everybody's week yesterday via my Google Reader I stumbled across this post by Charlotte of Tuppence and Ha'penny Vintage and instantly fell in love with the short and tee illustration in the second picture (below) and spent an hour or so figuring out how to make it. Not only will it make me happy, better yet, it will fulfill 2 of the 5 spots of my Sew Summer Essentials. It contradicts almost everything I've learnt about dressing for my shape and probably won't suit me but as Zoe pointed out in her comment, fashion do's and don't's are more like guidelines than actual rules and I'm with her and Cap'n Jack.

This is the outfit I want (shorts and striped tee) and the patterns I'll be using:

{ Source: Tuppence and Ha'penny Vintage }

Simplicity 3688

I'll be using the trousers to make the shorts (obviously). I had thought about using the shirt to make the tee but it has no centre seam and a yoke that would make it a little difficult to add a centre seam, for me anyway.

Simplicity 1008

So instead I'm going to use my newest purchase, once it arrives, to make the tee. This is actually a dress with straight sides so I'll be adding the centre seam and adding some shape to the side seams ... theoretically anyway!

I'm using an old dark blue cotton flat sheet for the shorts and have dug out a zip that is about 20" too long. I thought I'd get some red and white striped cotton material for the top as part of what drew me to the illustration was the fabric/ colour choices. Better yet, they match my wardrobe colours. Whoop whoop!

Right, I'm off to start cutting out!

Thanks for stopping by,