Shark attack pyjamas

Time for some winter pyjamas for the boy!

The last time I made him pyjamas in a woven fabric he hardly wore them and has declared he "prefers stretch fabric for sleepwear" (seriously, I've created a monster alright).

Well he's eaten his words 'cause he LOVES these pyjamas. Now, he has qualified his demands as stretch all over, or a stretch top with woven pants is also acceptable.

The shark flannelette came from Spotlight ages ago when they were having a sale. Either I stashed it for a very long time and there might once have been enough for top and bottoms, or it postdates the pyjama edict and I only bought enough for bottoms.

He tried A's Bedtime Story size 8 pyjamas on and they were too small, so that pattern's finished for him. I went back to the Sleepover Pyjamas which go up to size 12. I thought I could simplify them by leaving off the bottom cuffs. I cut a size 10 with size 12 length, but that wasn't long enough. The cuffs really do add considerable length and without them the pants were ankle grazers.

From the tiny bits of leftovers I could cut a pair of arbitrarily sized cuffs and threw a bit of navy flat piping in the seam to break up the print mismatch.

The top is fun, and also uses up the last of some thick, navy cotton lycra knit I've had for ages. It's the Jalie Nico raglan in size O which I already had traced from his recent T-shirts.

I didn't have enough fabric for any kind of acceptable sleeve length, but could cut some cuffs from the odd shaped scraps and I think cuffs always look more pyjama-y anyway, right?

The shark scrap is stitched to the back side of the T-shirt with a close zig zag stitch and then the T-shirt knit cut away leaving a small raw edge.

He hasn't not worn these to bed since I finished them. Enough to almost tempt me to restock the stash with more flannelette on sale...

But that's not the point. I'm endeavouring to use stuff up and add less. 

And so, after I cut the pants and there was about half a metre of fabric left I thought of how I could use it...

And I ended up making the cutest thing ever! 

Using the Oliver + S Teaparty Playsuit as the base, I overlapped the bodice and body sections to cut a one piece. I omitted the shoulder button closures and just closed the shoulder seams. The seam allowances were cut off the neckline and armholes so they could be finished with bias binding. As the Teaparty playsuit already has a centre front seam allowance (on the body part at least) it was no biggy to put a zipper down the middle.

The leg length came from the Oliver + S Lullaby Layette pants, and the whole thing should be a reasonable approximation of a size 12-18month.

The shark flannelette was quilted onto some bamboo quilt wadding (again using some last remnants - yay!) before cutting out the pattern pieces. 

I used the freemotion quilting foot that I'd bought ages ago for my machine (don't ask why). That was wild and a bit of fun. It took some getting used to the complete loss of control but I ended up going with the flow and I think my watery ripples around the sharks look great.

The lining is a cool striped knit that has also been in the stash forever. I found the zipper in the zipper box and some small remnants of blue knit that were just enough for making binding. Except for the striped knit there was nothing left to put away again by the end.

Frighteningly, I'd already quilted and cut this before I realised his pyjama pants were too short. So those cuffs really were a miraculous scrap buster.

Befitting a one year old's playsuit, the legs close with snaps. Yep, my snap stash had exactly the right shade of blue. :)

A friend's baby has just turned one and I was delighted to deliver this to him. I hope it fits and keeps him snug and warm during winter. 

While P was revelling in his pyjamas, A was watching me sew this and declared she wanted a pair of quilted overalls! :) Um, no, but I do have some awesome silver/black stretch denim to make her some overalls.

I can't wait to see this worn, and if it works well, then I'll keep the pattern for some of my other small, leftovers of flannelette. There's nothing more satisfying than using stuff up!

Details:

Patterns: Oliver + S Sleepover Pyjama pants, Jalie Nico Raglan, self drafted overalls based on Oliver + S Teaparty Playsuit

Size: Pants: 10 , T-shirt: O, playsuit: 12-18m

Fabric: Spotlight novelty flannelette, stashed striped knit and navy knit.

Notions: Quilt batting, knit binding, snaps, zipper all from stash

Kid's Clothes Week: Pyjama fest!

I'm going to confess that while I did some pattern tracing and cutting of kid's clothes the weekend before Kid's Clothes Week started, I was sidetracked by some sewing for me, and didn't get back to the kid's stuff until after Wednesday. So it was a half and halfer kind of sewing week.

Once I knuckled down to the kid's sewing I slaved each evening late into the night to make three pairs of Oliver + S Sleepover Pajamas before the end of the weekend.

The littlest pair are for Oscar who turns two tomorrow. He's previously been the recipient of a little blanket, and then last year the Playtown set from Little Things To Sew.

I already had the size 2 pattern drafted as that's what A's been wearing since here and here. They really do fit forever as turning down the cuffs gives another inch in length and they're pretty generous to start with.

A's pyjamas are a size 4. I chose to leave the ruffles off for the first time. They're super adorable with the ruffles but I knew it would be the time consuming bit that would put me over the edge.

There's no getting around it. These are some time consuming pyjamas to sew. Maybe I've become lazy with all the knit fabric overlocker jammies I've been making, but these ones kicked my butt.

Thank goodness for snaps as doing buttonholes on all three pair would have been untenable! I had A helping me in the garage lining up the snaps and setting them into the snap press, so naturally she got to choose her own colours, hence the rainbow snaps on this pair of pyjamas.

Finally, P got a pair in size 7.

Can you see the pockets? They're pretty well camouflaged as I was particular about fussy cutting them so they matched. I've said it before: you don't need pockets on pyjamas but if you're going to put them there you may as well do it right!

The kids chose the fabrics themselves from Spotlight last summer when it was on sale. My recollection is that the main flannelette fabric was $2/metre at the time. As they chose one fabric each they also volunteered that baby Oscar might like the blue camping animals fabric. So his birthday present was planned by the kids a long way out.

I would never have thought that I'd get into pyjama sewing, but if you're tired of having tasteful, darling dresses rejected then knock out some novelty print fabric pyjamas. The kids will love them and they'll get a ton of wear compared to anything else you make.

As I sewed these, my 5th, 6th and 7th pair of Sleepover Pajamas, I counted up all the other pyjamas I've made and came up with a decent list.
7 pair of Sleepover Pajamas
2 pair of Bedtime Story Pajamas
2 pair + 1 pair of Flashback Skinny T with Bedtime Story Pajama pants
2 pair of OUSM Ruffled PJs (pattern link)
2 pair of Tron Pyjamas (Rowan tee and Twisted Trousers)
1 pair Spider pyjamas (Rowan Tee and Bedtime Story Pajama pants

17 pairs of pyjamas!

Sewing these three pair was made trickier by our little houseguest seen photobombing above.
He gets a serious attack of the ratbaggy demon kitten just after the kids have gone to bed and I'm trying to sew. Obviously, a moving sewing machine, a pile of fabric, pattern paper, threads, it's all just too much for a kitten to resist. I had to press all the seams on these pyjamas with the cord to the iron wound over my shoulders so that it didn't get attacked from below!

I think that's us done for pyjamas for a while. At least until summer rolls around.

How was your Kid's Clothes Week. Was it slow and steady or a 4 night bender like mine?

P's choice of pyjamas!

When I was traipsing around town looking for ribbing for my as-yet-non-existent sweater project the kids were in tow, and P spotted some fabric that he wanted to have.

 

Normally my kids treat fabric store aisles like racetracks, which is made more annoying by how well behaved they can be in almost any other type of shop situation. Anyway P must have slowed down enough to spy that this was STAR WARS fabric!

 



I couldn't think of anything to do with novelty printed flannel except more pyjamas. (why do I even have to type novelty printed flannel on my blog? I want to type words like beautiful naturel linen with embroidered brown polka dots as sanae does) Anyway P wanted more pyjamas made of this fabric. I bought what I thought would be enough for more of the Sleepover pyjamas that I've been making. But then, in the next fabric store we came to, in a shabby little box at the bottom of a bookshelf were some out of print paper patterns for the Oliver + S Bedtime Story pyjamas. yay! That to me was a bit like a stamp collector finding one of those penny stamps where the queen's looking the wrong way.

 

The pattern has lovely, simple pants with binding at the cuffs, and a kimono top with ties. I'd read discussion on the Oliver + S forum of substituting the ties with snaps, and while that seems very practical, this was star wars, ninja pyjama territory and the ties would have to stay. I'm also inclined to sew each pattern as it was intended to be sewn at least once before I start messing around with them.

One minor tweak in the pants construction was to use a flat felled seam at the crotch. I guessed (correctly) that ninja-style star wars pyjamas were going to see a lot of high kicking action and that crotch seam would need some reinforcing!

 

Happily, the pyjama pants pattern piece is a bit narrower than the Sleepover pants, so both pants legs could be cut from a width of fabric folded. The same size (5T) in the Sleepover pattern is marginally too big to do that. And so, I had far more of this fabric than I could possibly need....

 

 

So I made a second pair of pants and a Flashback Skinny T for P's friend Noah who's about to have a birthday. I suspect I may have misremembered which was his favourite of the characters to stick on the front of the T-shirt, but that's my right as an old, dinosaur mum who just doesn't get Star Wars beyond the Return of the Jedi (I was going to say sequel, but that's where it all gets confusing, right? The second prequel perhaps??)

 



 Which left me with about the equivalent of a fat quarter of fabric left. I reached for the trusty Little Things To Sew book and made a drawstring bag:



which I didn't smooth flat very well for the photograph

I used www.myfonts.com to find a font that looked suitable (it's called Stormtrooper!) and made a freezer paper stencil and P painted the lettering. The bag is exactly the right size for a pair of pyjamas. Score!

And here's A photobombing the blogshoot! (appropriately wearing a flashback skinny T with Sleepover pyjama pants)

Pyjaminals!

 

 

Try and be normal honey..... No, not that normal, try happy normal....

P's Pyjamas: Oliver + S Sleepover Pyjamas, size 5, view A.
Fabric: Celebrate Seuss, Robert Kaufman.
Red striped flannel was an incorrect order from fabric.com which they suggested I keep. Thanks!
I imagine if a clown became a convict these pyjamas would be the outfit!

A's pyjamas: Oliver + S Sleepover Pyjamas, size 2, view B (those ruffles are so time consuming, but gee they're cute!)
Fabric: Sheri Berry quilting flannel from Spotlight.

 It seems a bit ridiculous putting pockets on kids pyjamas. I don't get why the kids need pyjama pockets, but I'm sure you understand that they HAD to be fussy cut, right?!

More Pyjamas!

 Over a wintry, rainy weekend the Bernina 700D and I got to know each other.

I'd had an excellent demonstration of how to do everything by the salesman at the shop but I worked through the instruction manual as well. After much fiddling and a few dozen test runs I had the tensions all correct, the blade position right and the differential feed all set for the cotton knit I was about to sew.

I had to stop every so often to answer Flipper's questions about how many things I'd made so far. I guess I must have said an overlocker would make me faster...

Once I was onto the T-shirt construction I did fly along. Until I kept unthreading my lower looper by pulling the threads at the end of stitching just like I do with my sewing machine. Lesson learnt. Just let it run. I am now quite proficient at rethreading the looper threads so a useful lesson, although a little frustrating.

Then I had a little practice at unpicking overlocker sewing, after sewing one sleeve cuff onto the wrong side of the sleeve. That wasn't so easy, so A's sleeves and cuffs are fractionally shorter than intended. But perfect for it I say!

I used Made By Rae's Flashback Skinny T pattern for the tops. There's a few options for the cuff and I thought these wider cuffs looked perfect for pyjama tops. I didn't really follow the instructions (in fact I stapled them together in the wrong order which may have put me off somewhat) but the pattern and instructions are superb and the end result is a really great long sleeve T.  I'm already imagining printed, long sleeve T-shirts, short sleeve T-shirts and even, maybe a turtleneck or skivvy...

I sewed the T-shirts using the overlocker, and only used the sewing machine (which purrs so sweetly now that it's been oiled that I really feel bad for how it used to scream at me and how I used to ignore it) for the hems.

I am so pleased with having seams that look this professional it's absurd. There's no gaping on the right side and the stitch has plenty of stretch in it, so I'm happy to use the overlocker alone for knit sewing. I attached the neck band with the overlocker too which worked perfectly, although this was during my lower looper unthreading moments so there are some wobblier bits on these neck bands.

I should make a note to myself that I could have made these neck bands a wee bit longer as there is a bit of gathering effect at the neck line. Although I much prefer that to the gape-y loose neck band I did here (that one needs shortening a bit)

 The pyjama pants were the Sleepover pants again, but this time without any fancy cuffs. I just added 1 inch to the leg length to then make a 5/8ths inch narrow hem.

There's enough length there for a bit of growing room.

After making my lovely plain white T-shirts I cut holes in them!

I put a scrap of the flannel fabric behind the T-shirt, holding it up to the window to see through and get the placement right, then stitched the two together with a narrow zig zag stitch, then simply chopped away the T-shirt fabric. Reverse applique for the lazy sewist?


I've done this a couple of times on cheap, plain store bought T-shirts and felt very clever. Now I can make the T-shirt AND the hole in the middle.

While the sewing machine was away for repairs I cut out two dresses for me (aaaah! I never sew for me, too scary) as well as a winter coat for P. The coat will probably be next to be sewn, but meanwhile a friend has delivered the single largest and most expensive piece of fabric I've ever seen and requested my sewing help.

Should be fun. Can anyone else say they've sewn a movie screen? Here's hoping I don't stuff it up!

All quiet on the home front

After 5 years of very steady service I decided the sewing machine might, finally, need a service. There's nothing wrong with it but it was getting pretty noisy and it dawned on me that at our house a bicycle chain gets regular lubricating, and a race bike would get cleaned and cared for after every outing. So how is it that the sewing machine has gone 5 years without a drop of oil?

Sheer neglect I'm afraid.

So, it's spookily quiet at home with the sewing machine gone for the week.

The last garments that I dry-motor rattled through were these pyjamas for the kids:

Here, I'm trying to relive a childhood memory of heating our pyjamas in the airing cupboard behind the fireplace. Unfortunately a heated towel rack (that came free with our house purchase) just doesn't cut it and there's none of that scalding button toasty hotness here. For safety's sake that's probably a good thing, but gee those hot jammies felt good.

Hot or barely lukewarm, these pyjamas still feel awesome. For the first time I bought some Michael Miller flannel online from fabric.com and it is divine. To date, the only flannel I've had is Woollies by Maywood studio (here) and this lovely fabric. I think I may have spoiled myself.

The pattern was a pattern bust that I've been wanting to get onto for ages. The Oliver + S Sleepover pyjamas. It goes without saying that they were a delight to sew. The girly ruffles is a fun addition and I was super happy about stepping out to the shed and popping in the snaps in five minutes. No way I could have done nine buttonholes and nine buttons as quickly or as joyfully. The only thing I need to do is go back and tack up the pants cuffs in a few more spots as they keep unfolding.

These pyjamas have been a rare success in that both kids absolutely LOVE them. They've been worn every night since they were finished. I was reading sewing blogs and read Once Upon A Sewing Machine's post about what gets worn and what doesn't and couldn't bring myself to respond as it all gets a bit depressing. Until of course I think, screw the kids I'm sewing to amuse myself. At least with these pyjamas, they were needed (sorely!), pattern bust achieved, I had fun, and the kids are super happy with them.

And with the sewing machine away for a week I've had time to think.... Imagine how I could churn out the pyjamas if I bought the Flashback Skinny T-shirt pattern and combined it with the Sleepover pants. And maybe, just maybe, what if the overlocker that I spied at the sewing machine repair centre was to come home with me......