Winter Red White and Blue

Red White and Blue, it's not just for July.  Neither are shorts.  Both are great year round.

One of my favorite color combos is navy blue and red.  Why else would she own such a pair of tights?  You'd be surprised at how much they match, especially if you have a denim skirt or a darling pair of navy blue bubble pocket shorts.

I've had the Elegance and Elephants bubble pocket shorts pattern for a while now.  I finally got around to sewing it last week when I realize that Miss had only one skirt that matched the previously mentioned tights.  Since she loved the tights, I knew she needed something else to wear with them.  I love the look of shorts with tights, so I raided my pattern stash and picked these out.

They came together very nicely, but I was a bit disappointed in the fit.  Miss is very narrow so I often have to take in the waist on her pants but with shorts, I usually just make her waist size.  These were a different story.  I cut out the 18/2T pattern pieces and they fit great except that the rise is a good inch too short.  She had chronic plumber's crack happening in the back the first day she wore them.  That isn't the pattern's fault, though.  Miss has recently developed a behind and she is having this issues with several pairs of pants that fit her fine last month.

To fix the half moon issue, I just sewed another waist band on top.  Now they cover her rear and have a cute paper bag waist.  I could have unpicked all the seams, made the waist band taller and sewn it all back together, but picking black thread out of navy linen would have been a headache inducing nightmare.  It was easier to just add length by sewing on another waistband.  It was about a 10 minute fix.

I wanted a wider fitting top to help balance out the pockets and I wanted something with longer sleeves.  Again, I raided my pattern stash and decided to give Oliver + S a whirl and sew up the Class Picnic Blouse.  Had I managed to print out all of the pattern pieces, this top would have come together in a couple of hours; however, if you forget the yoke pieces and sew the sleeves to the bodice, notice that there is a good 3 inches sticking off the top, ponder how the rest of it comes together, run downstairs to your computer to re read the directions, try to print the missing pattern pieces, fight with your printer that keeps saying it's jammed even when it's not, it might take you closer to 3 hours.  I say this from personal experience.  Ask me how my Sunday went.

Accidents aside, I think the top turned out very well.  I was worried about the fit when I saw all the pieces, but it is much less tent-like than I envisioned when I was sewing it all together.  I considered cutting out a 2 instead of a 3 and I even had to check flickr for photos of the fit because I was so worried.  A skinny Miss like she is can't pull off all styles.  The 3 fits with some room to grow without being too big.

The fabric is a cotton from Hobby Lobby in a navy floral on white.  It's a perfect match to the navy linen I made the shorts with.  I added a thin red and white striped ribbon on the front yoke as I was topstitching just to add a little something extra and to help Miss figure out the front from the back.

Miss loves how comfortable both pieces are and I love that they'll both match just about everything else in her closet even when her tights are in the wash.  Plus, they'll both transition well into spring and perhaps even summer if she keeps growing slowly.