We still catch up with a group of families who had their daughters in the same birth centre as we did. We’re having our Christmas catch up today. Last year we dressed our six month old babies in Christmas outfits and managed a cute photo. It’s been decided that we’ll try the same again this year – but with a bunch of 16 month olds I don’t fancy our chances at a photo!

I had grand plans of sewing up a cute pillow case dress in a cheery Christmas fabric for our little Elena. My plan has been foiled on two fronts: 1) Our catch up is happening in a local park and a pillow case dress is simply not sun-safe enough for the Australian summer, and 2) Our local fabric shop was clear out of cheery, attractive Christmas fabric (if it exists at all!).

Being 37 and a half weeks pregnant also limits my options somewhat, ruling out my other idea of an Oliver + s ice cream dress. I just can’t handle the idea of something too complex right now!

It’s horribly hot at the moment, so I settled on some cute shorts (view A) in the best fabric I could find.

The pattern is straight forward enough, if a little baggy on Elena in this size (the small runs to 8kg, she is 8.45kg, so I went with medium). I decided that, if I was going to go to all the trouble of buying a pattern and tracing it out, I should make a few pairs to tide us through child care this summer.

Hopefully I’ll manage to make a few more pairs before summer is over.