Jammies!

Thing 1 has outgrown most of his jammies, and even the ones that he can still wear are starting to look like waders on him. Not a good look! And also not so good for staying warm at night when your parents refuse to turn the heat above 65....though they have plenty of double-layer fleece blankets....but still....

Time to have a jammie sewing party! I decided to start with KS 3042 in flannel. The most recent jammie pants from this pattern were a size S, so I traced a size M and added an inch of length. I also traced the size M top in long sleeves but did not add length to that. I had this robot flannel that I purchased early last year. I intended to make him a set from the flannel, but unfortunately I didn't have quite enough. Instead, I pulled this yellow flannel out of stash to make the top. Thing 2 has plenty of jammies that fit, so I wasn't going to make him a pair. However, since I had plenty of both the robot and yellow flannels, I figured why not? He loves new jammies, especially if they match his brother's. So I made his in a size XS - no changes. These fit great, with room to grow! (Which is good, as I have a penguin flannel purchased on Black Friday this year to become jammies for Thing 1.)

I love making/giving the boys a special pair of jammies for Christmas, and I had purchased a Christmas ooga booga knit velour for this year. However, I needed to be certain of the sizing for Thing 1 especially! I have used KS 2275 for the pants and KS 2894 for the raglan shirt. So I made up a pair in a turtle camo waffle knit I purchased on clearance in early 2009. I realize that the waffle knit is bad about stretching in width and shrinking in length (as happened to these shark jammies), but I figured that this particular knit has been washed 3-4x so hopefully that won't be much of a problem. And, besides, at least I could get a good idea of the size on the first wearing, and then it's all fair game. So size M for the shirt and size 7 for the pants - one size up on shirt and two up on pants from the shark jammies - and there is definite growth room in both! Oh, and I realize the ribbing doesn't really match, but it was the best I could do, unless I went with black, and I just wanted to keep it totally bright and cheerful.

And then the Christmas jammies! Thing 1 has fallen in love with the ooga booga fabric and has 2 shirts made from other colorways (grey/red/black and rainbow), and Thing 2 likes them, though I haven't yet made him a shirt from them. So I knew these would be a hit! I bought the fabric from the Sew It Seams coop (formerly This-End-Up) in both interlock (intended for shirts which didn't happen - there's always next Christmas....) and cotton velour, which I thought would make really nice jammies. The larger pair are the same as the turtle camo, and the smaller pair are XS shirt and size 5 pants. Both are definitely a bit big, but that just gives a chance that they'll still fit next Christmas! (Maybe?) And I took their picture beside the tree to go in our (late) Christmas cards.

Some boy stuff

First up, new PJs. Yeah, I know - it's warm weather and these are not. Tough. They may still fit in the fall, but also, sometimes the boys like wearing warm jammies in the cool AC. I bought the fabric at JAF during a sale on both Snuggle flannel and Sew Classics Knits. I just needed a little retail therapy that day, and Thing 2 especially needs new PJs. I have a decent flannel PJ shirt pattern for Thing 1, but not for Thing 2, so I decided that a solid knit with a fabric applique would do nicely and make it obvious that the items went together.

The pants are KS 3042, size S, and the shirt is KS 2894, size S. I added cuffs because it is PJ shirt. Thing 1 chose the applique for the shirt.

This is KS SFT, size 3T for both. I added two inches in length to the body and sleeves for the shirt, so it should last a long time. Thing 2 also chose his appliques. I used self-fabric for ribbing on both shirts. I simply cut a quarter yard piece off the length before prewashing and put it away for use as ribbing.

This is Fishsticks Designs Patrick Curved Raglan Shirt, sizes 3T and 5T. I cut these out long enough ago that they were supposed to be long-sleeved, but when actually stitching them, I decided to leave off the undersleeves, as I don't necessarily expect these to last into fall. The knits are both thin, so they should be good summer/early fall shirts. I used the tutorial to add a hood to each (since they were supposed to be made much earlier - oops!), and I really like how they turned out.

Also, because these knits were not necessarily behaving nicely, I decided to heavily starch them after I had cut the pieces out. So I made starch in a five gallon bucket and starched each piece by hand, soaking them, wringing them out, and then spreading them on towels to dry. Once they were dry, I pinned and pressed the hems up. I have to say that it made twin-needling the hems almost painless. I will definitely do this again! I didn't starch the hood pieces, because those were being serged together, not hemmed.

I like the hood size on Thing 2 - not huge and floppy, but not tight. I'll have to see how the larger size is when Thing 1 tries his on.

Up next: working on the next sizes of the button-front shirts and maybe pulling out the other Patrick shirts I cut out at the same time as the train ones. These are not hooded and will also be turned into short sleeves.

Finally hemmed the thermal knits (among other things)....

So I forget how long the thermal knit jammies have been languishing in the land of "Mostly Done," but let's just go with - "it's been awhile." Probably at least a month. I was trying out liquid starch for stiffening some thin knits that are going to become new Patrick raglan seam shirts, so I decided to try it on these as well. I think it really helped! I had no troubles with the waist elastic, and I think that the shirt hems also behaved pretty well. Of course, everything is always helped by a final wash and dry, and these were no exception. They made their PJ debut last night, when we went to the grade school for a PJs and movie night. (Btw, I heartily recommend Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.) A definite hit! They fit well, with some growth room, and the boys love them. The smaller one is from KS SFT (size T3), and the larger is KS 2275 for the pants (size 5) and KS 2894 for the shirt (size S). Four yards out of stash - yay!

My dad's birthday was last month, and he is former Army. I had gotten this Robert Kaufman fabric from a coop, and I used it with S9958 for a pair of boxers for him (size L).

And for a bit of instant gratification, I bought this flannel fabric on sale at JAF last weekend and cut and sewed the pillowcases yesterday morning. The boys were able to take their new pillowcases (and pillows) to the PJs and movie night, as well as wearing their new shark jammies! These definitely went over well. (With me, too - I loved the silly monsters print but had no real reason to buy it!)