My Sewing Space

Shortly before Christmas, I made all three kids some new pajamas. Then I made them each a set as a Christmas gift and my mom gave them each new pajamas, too! Pajama overload perhaps, but it was really a good thing. Even The Preacher got new pajamas. The ability of good pajamas to bring comfort and joy is not to be underestimated. My pajama drawer and I were feeling left out. Finally last week I was able to remedy that. I do not enjoy the bunching up around the legs that happens with traditional pajama pants. I had been wearing leggings and tunics as pajamas for awhile and that worked well. Last fall I made a pair of sweatpants (track pants? lounge pants? I don't know exactly what they are...) using Ottobre 5/2011 #5  and I really liked them. Combined with the plentiful race T-shirts I have, they would be great as pajamas - comfy, stretchy, and tapered at the ankle so they don't bunch up. I bought two pieces of cotton interlock from JoAnn's and made them...

July was a busy month for our family. We moved back to the States and have been busy getting settled in our new community. It's been a good move so far but the changes and adjustments have consumed a lot of time and energy. I am very grateful to once again have a dedicated sewing space and have that all unpacked. There is still some arranging to do and things to get to make the space as efficient as I'd like it. That will come in time. After not sewing anything for six weeks, I was honestly a little stumped by the question of what to sew first. My older daughter needed some more warm-weather pajamas and I could do that with stash fabric, so that's what I did. I used two Ottobre patterns for this set, both of which were designed for knits. To make them work for this woven poplin, I sized up before cutting and then had to do some tweaking during assembly. The top is Ottobre 3/2011 #33. I like the envelope-style neckline and I loved doing the bias binding. The yell...

Shortly after Christmas, I got into a bit of a pajama-sewing blitz. The pajama options for all three of my kids were pretty bad - way too small, woefully mismatched, etc. Pajamas aren't ever my first choice of things to sew (which is why the situation had gotten so bad) but I found there was a lot that I liked about this round of pajama sewing: The kids were really appreciate of new pajamas and that always makes the time and effort worth it. I find it really easy to leave the perfectionist tendencies behind with pajamas. "Good enough" is the name of the game for details, finishing and fit. Because they're pajamas! Sometimes I feel conflicted when I need to choose between being resourceful and frugal or getting it exactly how I want. Use the serviceable buttons already in the stash or go buy the ideal ones? Does this ready-made piping "go" or should I make my own out of newly-purchased and perfectly coordinating fabric? When it comes to pajamas, the reso...

I made pajamas for each of my kids. They’re so happy because they got to pick out the fabric. My older daughter wanted “pajamas that have the top and bottom connected and have feet.” Kwik Sew 2704 was the answer – sleepers for big kids. My son wanted the same thing, and was quite insistent that they be cozy. In his mind, cozy and fuzzy are synonymous. I think both of them are surprised how warm these are. My younger daughter only wears dresses, skirts, and jumpers for day and nightgowns at night. She’s cute about this as long as there is a choice she approves of in her drawer. If everything that suits her is in the laundry, she’s not so cute. So, here we have another nightgown for her. I modified an out-of-print Kwik Sew pattern to make it. Oh, and I made her leggings to wear with the nightgown since she doesn’t keep the blankets on at night. Sleep well, kiddos!

A couple of nights ago my son came over to me on his way down to bed and with a very sad look, said, "Mom, can you please make my race car pajamas while I'm sleeping tonight?"  Awwww.  Unfortunately, I couldn't that night, but I did get to it last night.  I cut them out at the same time I cut out the soccer pajamas and they've just been sitting there ever since.  They got pushed aside with the daughter's clothing projects and then my samples for sale.  Once I got started on them, they went together really quickly. He's pretty excited about them.  I'm hoping to capitalize on that and move out the beloved Thomas The Tank Engine pajamas that he's been wearing for nearly two years.  I expect to hear a big rrrriiiiiiiiiip everytime he wriggles into them. I had just enough fabric for these, since it is a one-way print and I wanted to match the pattern at center front.  The black-and-white checkered background isn't printed on-grain which was...

I brought this little guy with me to the fabric store (Fabricland) to pick out some fabric for pajamas.  We brought home this soccer print and an indy race car print.  Perhaps you remember what I think about auto racing .  So, I was a little conflicted about buying the indy cars.  But, it was either that or hockey and I really don't care for hockey either.  This soccer print was also available with a green background - you know, so it would look like a soccer field.  That seemed to make sense to me, but the client wanted the blue, so that's what came home. I've used this pattern many times already.  It's a good pattern.  This set of pj's is the largest size, T4.  They're a little big on him now, but that was intentional.  They'll be too small too soon.  This is probably the best pattern matching I've done yet.  It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it.  I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it ...

"A dress? To wear to bed ?! For ME?!?!" Okay, so the concept of a nightgown is a bit new to my daughter. I don't wear one and she's never had one, but she's getting used to the idea. The Preacher's grandma gave me this flannel and I just barely squeaked this out of it, but it is perfect for a nightgown. I made a size 4 and lengthened the skirt and sleeves by 1.5". The pattern suggests sewing flat lace to the top of the collar, but I didn't find any lace that I liked, so I put white ric-rac around the collar edge instead. It's inserted like piping. I seem to be on a bit of a New Look streak lately. I think this was a good pattern. There isn't really a lot of fitting work to fuss with on a nightgown like this, but it did seem to be drafted well. I'll be entering this for judging in the fair in the "girl's nightgown" category. My daughter doesn't quite understand why she can't wear it until after the fair, but she kn...

Here's another Kwik Sew pattern that I use over and over again, but it is out of print now. These are very basic pajamas, for knit fabrics. My daughter found this fabric in my stash and said she wanted me to make something for her from it. That's pretty hard to resist, so I made these for her birthday. The pants don't have an outer leg seam, so they are really fast to put together. The pattern for the short sleeve doesn't have a hem allowance as it suggests finishing it with lace. I didn't want to include the lace, so I added the hem allowance. I wish I could say that the neckband and pants cuffs match better in real life, but they don't. Actually, they probably look worse than in the picture. But, I was working with what I had on hand. It's not like running to Fabricland would have helped anyway. I'm sure they wouldn't have had a better match. The fabric is a poly knit that I picked up at a Field's tent sale a couple of years ago. I'm sure...