The talented ladies from Pattern Anthology have just released the Winter Wonderland Collection. I was so excited when they asked me to join the blog tour I said yes immediately. Then I remembered I had a little baby and my sewing machine was fast becoming ornamental, but I didn’t want to miss out on the fun. With Summer on it’s way here in Australia, I chose to do a remix of the Tree Climbing Trousers into shorts.

I love the features of the Tree Climbing Trousers. The front patch pockets are nice and big and I love the flaps on the back pockets. The pattern also has reinforced knees on the pants which are just perfect for adventurous boys! I’m looking forward to trying out the pants with some knee pads.

To make shorts, I simply shortened the back leg piece to the length I wanted (including the hem) and then extended the front top leg piece to match. The slim fit works perfectly as shorts and is right on trend. As well as turning the trouser pattern into shorts, I also added a half fly and adjustable waist using tutorials from Craftstorming.

 

I used this gorgeous coloured cotton drill for the shorts and blue topstitching thread for all the detailing. I love hidden features in clothing, so used this cute raindrop fabric for the the waistband facing and front patch pocket lining. The hems are finished off using a bound hem finish which again makes a feature of the raindrop fabric. Because the legs are fairly straight, I cut the binding on grain rather than on the bias and it worked fine.

 

I was aiming to have the length just past the knees and using the bound hem, the length is spot on! I measured the inseam off another pair of Roman’s shorts and used this measurement as my guide for cutting the pattern.

Roman is starting to get an independent streak and picks the gumboots to wear everyday because he can pull them on himself. I’m quite happy for him to start dressing himself, so used snaps for closures on the pockets and waistband as they’re much easier for him to do up than buttons.

I’m a bit disappointed I only got to make one item from all the great patterns. Both of the boys have had colds and Ted has needed a lot more cuddles and feeds all through the night, so I haven’t had much sewing time. I’d love to try out all the patterns though! I’m totally in love with the blazer and I think you could have so much fun with the hat! The shirt pattern also includes details to upcycle a shirt rather than start from scratch, which I love. And that’s just the boys patterns! You can see all the pieces in the collage below.

The Winter Wonderland Collection is available at PatternAnthology.com. Also, make sure you check out all the other stops on the tour. There are over 40 bloggers joining in on the fun. You can see the posts on the hosting blogs (Melly Sews, See Kate Sew, The Train to Crazy and Shwin&Shwin) or check this list here which will be updated as the tour progresses.

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