Pajamas Finished

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I finished Pearle's pajamas last night, and I am very pleased with them, except for the very silly mistake I made. Not such a big deal for pajamas, but it irritated me since I was being very careful to do this correctly, and I did it backwards and never noticed until I was ready to do the hem. Sigh. Nothing is ever perfect. He says he doesn't care and wouldn't have noticed, which is very nice. Still, I'm annoyed. In case you haven't figured it out (fond wish) I made the closure the wrong way, right over left. In all the shirts I've made for him, I've never done this before, and I suppose if I had to do it, now was a good time.

Anyway, since it was a very fun project, I'm thinking of making something similar for me. Not the same fabric, since choosing a wild, "wouldn't wear it out of the house" print is half the fun.

I made a few changes to the pattern for both shirt and pants.

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You can see the pants here with the drawstring tied at the top, the button fly at center, and one piped hem cuff at the bottom. This fabric is hard to see details in.

They wanted you to do the fly buttonhole only through the underlayer of the top fly, so it would be a hidden button, but I thought that seemed a bit fiddly to use, and just did a buttonhole through to the top.

I used a rounded buttonhole for this set, and larger buttons than is usual on a shirt.

The waist is supposed to be elastic, but he asked for a drawstring, so I put a piece of elastic between two pieces of drawstring for more comfort.

I also did the CB with a very wide SA, as is usual for men's dress pants, so I have plenty to alter, just in case.

I stitched the CB seam up to the fold point at the top of the waist casing, and left the rest of the seam, which is folded to the inside, unstitched, but placed carefully so it lays as if stitched. This way I can easily do anything necessary to the elastic and drawstring inside. I made 2 buttonholes in the front for the drawstring ends to come out of. The drawstring is quite long, and I will probable cut it off some after a few wearings.

The hem was turned up quite wide, then tucked, with the piping slid in behind the tuck and topstitched. This saved putting on a separate band for the hem, and gives a clean finish inside.

I added a side pocket to the pattern.

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I used no interfacing in the collar or stand, and just did my usual folded placket, which results in self-interfacing.

I trimmed the width of the SA of the piping and tucked it behind the inside edge of the placket and topstitched to hold.

The top of the pocket is piped.

The sleeves end in a separate band, with piping between. I basted the piping to the sleeve, made the band, turning in both long edges, and then topstitched it in place through all layers.

I only put 4 buttons on this shirt, and none on the stand.

All seams are either enclosed and topstitched, or stitched, serged and topstitched. I don't want to have to mend anything for a very long time.


Now you know all my secrets. It was fun to sew this with attention to small details that make things very personalized. I guess it's close enough that I can call this a Valentine's Day gift.