It's Time to 'Knock It Off' again!

Heidi, over at Elegance and Elephants, is hosting a Spring version of 'Knock It Off'. The challenge is to take a piece of children's clothing that is 'high end' and make it yourself for much, much less.

This time around I wanted to go casual.  For the winter, I made a fancy, yet very simple dress.  Last time I went Italian and this time I went French. I also went for shorts and a summery top this time around.  Guess which one costs more.

Here's the outfit I chose:

It's look #17 from Bonpoint and guess how much just the shorts and the shirt would cost you...around $300 according to the exchange rate I looked at for Euros.  That's just plain crazy!

Here's my look:

 My total cost--$5 maybe.

 I bought 2 yards of the fabric for with a 50% off coupon and probably only used 3/4 of a yard.    The shorts I just upcycled from a pair of jeans I got at Goodwill for 99 cents. The buttons were a dollar and I bought the gold colored jeans thread for just under $1 thanks to another 50% off coupon.

 I let Sophia chose the fabric.  I just wanted something light weight to mimic the look of the Bonpoint shirt, but I wanted her to love the shirt so floral it was.

For the neck and arm holes, I just used bias tape made from the fabric. I used the bias tape to make the bow too.

I really like how the shirt turned out! I just used my self drafted pattern for a button up shirt that I've used a ton of times now.  To get the little gathers under the back yolk, I just added 2 inches on the fold (4 inches total) to the back piece.  Then I just did the bias tape instead of a collar and sleeves.  I forgot that I was going to make the shoulder a little wider to make it hang over the shoulder more, other than that it is perfect and she loves it.

So to get this look you can use any button up shirt pattern. Just add the little extra to the back, don't add the collar or sleeves and finish with the bias tape instead.  Very easy and summery.

 The shorts however, turned out kind of funky, but she says they are comfortable and wants to wear them. The pants I used were more of a stretch jean fabric and I wish I would have gone with actual jean material because it turned and twisted a little.  

I simply cut the front from the pants, using a pair of her shorts as a guide. I included part of the zipper and the back I used the seam from the back middle. I also reused the waistband/belt loops. I just picked it off the jeans and cut to length which allows me to use the existing button hole as well.  
For the welt pockets, to remind myself how to do it I followed this tutorial.  There was plenty of fabric in these pants to get the pockets and welts. And I have plenty left over to attempt a pair of baby jeggings for a new niece. One thing about this stretchy fabric was that a thinner welt did not work.  Maybe if I treated it more like a knit it might have, but I would love to try it with actual jean material and see how it looks.

And here is the look: