Dreamtime Jammies

It’s that time of year where Christmas sewing takes over and the to do lists pile high. I’m not into stressing myself out in that way, so I keep my Christmas sewing easy with just one obligation; Christmas Eve pajamas for my little guy.

Flannel pjs using the Pajama Rama pattern from ShwinandShwin have been my standard, but I’ve mixed things up a bit by sewing a new pattern; the Dreamtime Jammies from Blank Slate Patterns.

Are you sewing any pajamas this holiday? If you are, you can join the Pajama Linkup Party hosted by Pearberry Lane. (Ends 12/14/16)

The Fabric: Superhero Pups Interlock from Joann.com. I like that this knit is a little thicker for winter and has enough stretch to easily use for the cuffs and neckband on the pattern.

The Pattern: I downloaded the free size 4 last year from Melly Sews. A full pattern in all sizes was released this fall on her Blank Slate Patterns store. I can’t really give a pattern review here since I didn’t look at the instructions. I’ve sewn enough tees and knit pants that I can just do it. I will say the fit is spot on for a size 4. (Too bad my 4 1/2 year old hit a growth spurt)

The Dreamtime Jammies should take you about 2 hours to make. I used about 1 yard at 60in wide.

Total Cost: $7      Pattern $0   Fabric $6      Notions $1

 

Little boy photoshoot outtakes

Giggle Monster:

Yeti impersonation:

“I keep falling down”

Happy Fathers Day! Star Wars Style.

For Father’s Day I did something very special for my Dearest, I actually sewed something for him for the first time.

The idea of making something for my man has been out there for a while; but with him being well stocked on shirts and me saying no way to sewing him jeans, we were at a bit of an impasse. Thankfully what he recently requested was going to be an easy start into sewing for men, some pajama shorts.

The Pattern: Pajama Bottoms from 5 out of 4 Patterns is a free unisex pattern, comes in different options for length, pockets, and regular or low rise waist. I made the size medium shorts with a drawstring and no pockets. These run super long, so I shortened them by 3in.

The fabric: One of the many Star Wars cotton fabrics available at Joanns and similar stores. I knew the options for boyish fabrics at my local store was pretty sad, but it’s even worse for men. Yikes. I’m so glad my hubby digs Star Wars.

His opinion: They go on like a bucket, but I like the fabric.

Translation: There is a lot of fabric gathered at the waist. Next time, I’ll cut a smaller waist and grade out to the hip for a less boxy fit.

My opinion: I think he looks great in most everything. He’s the one and only for me.

Today I’m joining Ti from Sewing by Ti for the June is for Fathers blog tour. Take a look at her blog post today and her other posts this month to see what Ti’s been making for her man.

Whaaat…a pajama rama party?

I was not anticipating having to knock out more pajamas this year. (Sorry Core Wardrobe you’re at the back of the line again.) In rare form, I planned ahead for winter clothes for the little guy, even making one more set of pjs for him in August. Now all of a sudden toes are popping out of footie pjs and torso and arms are longer than his pj tops.

Thank you Shwin & Shwin for your free Pajama Rama pajama set pattern to solve my dilemma. I made this 4T pattern for my almost 3T little guy with the hopes that I can just lower the really deep hems next winter.  We’ll see.

Aren’t those puppies so cute? This flannel was originally intended for his Christmas Eve pjs, but necessity meant he was wearing these early. -And yes I know flannel isn’t made for kids pjs. I’m a grown up, my choice.

Do you see my goof up?  Puppies on one sleeve are “uppa see down” as my son would say. Yeah, I didn’t notice until I was sewing the button holes, so you know, not gonna fix it now.

Here’s a second version I made out of a stretchy polartec fleece.

Little guy says these are “so soft and fluffy”

This last set I made this week is under wraps until Christmas Eve.

Snuggle Time. Winter PJs for the little guy.

I’m trying so hard to plan ahead my sewing projects instead of reacting to the “oh no, we don’t have fill in the blank” moments. A couple months ago, I pulled out the box of 2T hand me downs I have for the little guy to get things into circulation and figure out what we still need. Somehow we always seem to need winter pajamas. Victory! I still have time, I have go-to patterns (Vintage Vneck and Clean Slate Pants by Melly Sews), and I have just barely enough fleece in my stash.

To start, I had just under 1/3 square yard of each of the two colors of the fleece. It took some arranging and rearranging to get the pattern pieces to fit that small area. Adding a blue side stripe and waistband was the perfect solution for not enough fabric for the pants and to tie the two pieces together. I cut a 4T instead of 2T width on the top to adjust for the fleece not being as stretchy as a knit. I made the V-neck opening a bit wider to account for this also.

Look, there’s a Robot!

The pants went together so easily, hurray!

The top went together so easily until the neckline. Oh man, I just could not get the point of that V without a pucker. So let’s try it on and see how much it shows. AAAARRRGG! It doesn’t fit over his head. I can laugh it off now, but this quick and easy project was already taking on problem child qualities pretty fast.

I can dance like a robot.

Alrighty take a breath, I had just enough of a scrap to make a placket opening instead. Back to the sewing table. I used the instructions from the Prepster Pullover as a guide to add the placket.

The top took 1.75 hours plus an additional hour to add a placket.

The bottoms took 1.75 hours.

(Not counting all my pattern rearranging to make it work on my limited fabric)