Other FOs

My aunt likes cows, and she works for a company that makes ice cream. Consequently, she gets a lot of cow-type collectibles. I'm always on the lookout for something different. I found a "cow jumps over the moon" flannel sheet set on eBay a year or so ago, and I bought it to make her some PJs. I have not yet made the PJ shirt, as I'm debating which pattern to use, but the pants were finally finished and sent on their way to her as a belated birthday gift. (She'll get the shirt for Christmas, I hope.) She got them yesterday and says that she loves them, so that was good.

And DS#1's first grade class earned a reward for good behavior, and the class voted to have Pajama Day. So I thought that deserved a new pair of PJs. His only other pair of flannel PJs were getting a bit short in the legs and were short-sleeved, so I pulled out two lengths of flannel and let him choose. He chose the bears roasting smores over Toy Story, which surprised me a little. I traced the next size up, stayed up too late, and voila! Here are his new long-sleeved flannel PJs!

And DS#2 is potty-training, and so we need quite the assortment of underwear around here. I thought that if I could sew some for him, it would 1) use up some of my otherwise useless knit scraps, and 2) encourage him to not pee in his underwear! So far the results are mixed. At any rate, I used the pattern from That*Darn*Kat to make prototypes for each boy. (Because of course if one boy gets Mama-made undies, the other will cry foul.) And I have to say that these are pretty cool! You use regular knit fabric of any kind (even old T-shirts) for the main parts and cotton/lycra knit for the waistband and legs, so that you don't need elastic. The fly is a double-layer, functional fly, not that my boys need it, and you can use a serger or just a sewing machine. My serger is sick, so sewing machine it was. I will be happy when I can use the serger, as it will cut down on assembly time, but these are quite functional. And the boys like them!

*DS#1 is not a lefty - I simply goofed when assembling the fly and decided that even I wasn't OCD enough to rip it apart and fix it when he'll just pull them down, anyway.

New PJs finished!

I finished my new PJ shirt the other night and am wearing it as I type! It's warm, cozy, and (I think) cute. This is M5511 view C. I like the contrast collar, and I also added contrast at the facing, because I was out of the main fabric (I wanted to use the contrast print at the facing, but I didn't have enough of that, either). And I added contrast cuffs at the sleeves both because I was short on the main fabric and because I thought it would help to tie it in to the pants, which have the contrast cuffs.


I don't like how the facing is pretty much like a bib in there. This is an inside out view. Part of the problem is that I have no way to stitch it down to the shirt, because the pocket is in the way. And that was the order of instructions - you attach the facing sometime AFTER the pocket. (The instructions don't tell you to stitch down the facing - I'm just bothered by it.) I think that if I make this again, I would attach the pocket sometime later so that I could stitch down the entire facing.

And I tried out iron-on hem tape for the hem, instead of just stitching it in place. (My serger is out of commission, and trying to do a double-fold hem after using french seams for the sides just didn't appeal to me.) I'm not sure that I like it. After wearing it for a night, I concluded that the hem tape was peeling away in places and that it gives a strange stiffness to the hem, making it poof out a bit, which can give a slight preggo look. So after trying unsuccessfully to peel it away, I simply resteamed it down and then used a twin needle over the hem tape. That helped.


My finished PJ ensemble! I should have taken a before picture - my first addition of sleeve cuffs were very flamboyant, as I'd made them too long. But I decided that I couldn't stand them, and that they needed to be the same length as the leg cuffs. Now I'm much happier with them.

I like this PJ shirt pattern, and I'm plotting which of my next PJ fabrics to use with view A.

Finished presents!

I made a few PJ pants for Christmas and birthday presents. I bought Lucky Charms and Trix flannel on clearance at JAF last year, but I didn't have time to make the PJ pants for last Christmas. So this year I made sure to get them done! The Lucky Charms pants are for my sister-in-law. I couldn't find any of the stretchy foldover braid I used to use for drawstrings, so I just used bias tape in coordinating colors.

The Trix flannel is for my brother.

The billiards flannel is also for my brother, but for his birthday. These are heading into the mail tomorrow. I also found this flannel on clearance at JAF, but I bought it earlier this spring, I think. Still counts as stash, though!

All the PJ pants are from B6887. The two pair for my brother have real flys, but the one for my sister-in-law does not have a fly. No point, right?

Chugging along....

Just in time for Halloween! I finished these boy pants, and the Things wore them to church the next day. :) They are ghost camo from WM ages ago, and they are fully lined with white flannel. So they'll be warm for awhile! Oh, yeah - and I added pockets. Orange for one, and black for the other. I was surprised that the pocket bags didn't show through the fabric. It's a little beefier than it seems, I guess.

And I have finally finished a pair of PJ pants for ME! These are from my TNT PJ pants pattern, M3006. It's long out of print, and I can't even find my copies of it. (I'm still hoping that my friend still has them.) But I did manage to find my tracings, thank goodness. I apparently shortened the pattern a tad too much, so I added contrast cuffs to make up for it. Also, I plan to make a coordinating PJ shirt out of the same green flannel, so I figured this would help tie it together.

And this will be my next project, at least once the serger is fixed and back from the shop. :( I bought this flannel shirting to make my first long-sleeved shirt for DH. I hope that he'll like it. I'm using KS 3422, size M with a 16 1/2 inch neck. I think it's really cool that you have the option of the general sizes as well as the neck sizes. Very nice!