Jubilee skirts and shorts

Jubilee celebrations are all around us at the moment and with a couple of special Jubilee trips planed for the next week, I decided on Tuesday that the kids should have something special to wear to help them remember such a unique time. I popped down to my local fabric shop and got these lovely fabrics in blue, red and a long quarter of union jacks.

I used 1.5 metres in length for the fabric and measured the length I wanted for the skirt on each girl, adding 2 1/2" for the elastic casing and 1/2" for the bottom hem. I sewed two heart shapes, with right sides together, turned then through and ironed them to make the pockets. I top stitched the top of the heart and then sewed around the rest of the heart shape when it was on the skirt to make the pockets. I hemmed the bottom edge.

I cut another 1.5m length of some thinner white fabric and stitched a red lace along the bottom edge. When I folded over 1 1/4" twice at the top of the outer skirt, I tucked the underskirt in before stitching it down to make the casing for 1" wide elastic.

I didn't want the boy to feel left out and so I put together these shorts by adapting this pattern. I made them in calico first to see how they worked out and to check measurements before cutting up my nice new fabric.

The shorts have a simple elasticated waistband. I added some red cotton tape I had leftover from another project down the sides of the legs. They look a bit more boy-style now.

As you can see they are great for running around in!