Boy's pants etc.

It's been a while, and I can't decide whether I'm blogging less because

a) the blogging honeymoon is over;

b) it's summer and I spend more time outside, less at my laptop;

or c) I've been sewing more than usual, hence more time at the sm, less at the pc.

DS gets rather jealous whenever I sew something for his sister, so I decided to sew up some of my fabric market stash and make him a pair of jeans - meaning the material, not the 5-pocket-style which rather scares me. As you know I usually draft (or sew together whichever way) kids' pants myself, but I wanted to use a pattern for a change, and loved what I found in the current Ottobre kids fashion issue.

It's the pattern no. 26, "Zoom" pirate jeans. I found that either Ottobre has funny sizing or I have funny kids, because their measurements are truly all over the place. DS is 116 cm tall which makes him a size 116, but his waist is a 104 (two sizes down), and his hips even less. So I re-sized the pattern to a 104 in width and 116 in length. Since it's an elastic waist and an easy fit all's well. I like the elastic/drawstring waist with mock fly as well as the fashion details, such as darts on the lower legs with tabs sewn in on one side, velcroed on the other side. I had some trouble with the instructions regarding the mock fly - they had a fly cut on, and it was supposed to be sewn together on the left side of the garment and stitched down through the fabric from the right side?! If I got that right. In the end, I cut off the fly flaps and just topstitched the mock fly in.

(back pocket detail, border by Farbenmix)

The Ottobre instructions include a how-to on giving the finished jeans an "ageing" wash. I'm not sure whether I'll do that. If I do, I'll post more pictures!

DD has grown out of her pretty sun hats and had to resort to wearing her brother's old basecaps. So when I stumbled upon hat pattern no. 142 in the April Burda issue, I gave it a try. I made size 50 according to DDs head circumference and it fits very well.


The fabric is a heavy cotton with color blocking from Ikea a few years ago, and some remnants of the bird quilting fabric from my tote bag. The hat has a bucket shape that can be worn with the brim turned up or down, and is fully reversible. Three pattern parts, fast and easy. Highly recommended!


Question:
Which digital camera do you use for your pictures? I have a Casio that I'm very dissatisfied with (re the picture quality/clarity and flash exposure). I need a point-and-shoot model, and I'm more willing to compromise on ease of use than on picture quality. I found a few positive reviews on the Canon powershot series. Anyone have one of those?