I’ve been looking for an alternative to shorts for my little wild thing as the summer arrives, and short of putting her in knee pads at all times, we’re left with pedal-pusher length capris.  She received a pair of khaki pants similar to these from our friend Zoe, and since I observed J dressing her in them at every opportunity, I thought I’d better work on replicating the style. A couple weeks ago I made a test pair of pink linen with striped trim, but found them to be a bit baggy.  Last week I tried again, altering my original pattern to put together a pair of slimmer-fit some capris out of some kokka Ouka fabric I’ve been hoarding since last year. We love the result:

I made a coordinating top from the same pattern as the little unicorn dress I made in double gauze, but it didn’t come out the way I’d imagined.

I think the fabric, a linen/cotton dobby weave, lends itself better to a simpler construction.  So, the first top, while admittedly cute, was a bit fussy for our tastes:

I salvaged the other shirt for reconstruction by doing some unsewing, and creating a new yoke/neckline. I kept the cotton lace and the velvet rickrack details, “ungathered” the front and back, which required taking out some width from the side seams and bound the arms instead of adding a sleeve.

We all like it better this way.