She told her dad she’d need help cutting the top of the tree net open. Just barely, though. Not pictured: how short her pajama bottoms are. Last Christmas they were too long. The next size up is huge around the waist. I foresee some tailoring in my future.
This nightshirt used to be a pair of pajamas. Repeated washings have caused them to shrink, but instead of getting smaller all over, they got shorter and wider. I tried to convince my daughter they were ready for the donate pile, but the “doggie pajamas are her most favorite.” She asked me if I could turn them into a nightshirt like her Mickey pajamas.
Since they were so wide, all I had to do was remove the elastic waistband, sew the pant legs into a tube, and attach them to the shirt. I added a rolled hem to the raw edge of the waist to match the shirt for a little more ruffle action: pink hem original, green hem mine.
technical note: I had a serious problem with skipping stitches on this project, no matter what my tension, regular or ball point needle, even different thread. When I switched to a muslin scrap the stitches were fine. I figured it must be the fabric so I tried putting a piece of paper tissue under the presser foot. It worked like a charm and the tissue tore away easily. I’m not sure where I first read this idea, but I’m glad I remembered it!
wardrobe refashion: I don’t think the life of these pajamas really need to be extended much longer. We’ve had them awhile and they are well loved. I’m curious how long they’ll last in their new form.
When I was at my craft weekend away, one of my friends was serging a nightshirt for her daughter. Another friend was making dresses out of t-shirt scraps. I blame them for this crazy idea: a nightshirt out of a pajama top and bottom scraps.
This was a lot cuter in my head and my sketches than it turned out. I had hoped the skirt would be a bit more ruffled, but there really wasn’t a lot of fabric in the bottoms. I wound up piecing together the sleeves, too. (Sorry for the unstaged “before” photo, but I was really excited to dive into this project!)
Thankfully, I tested this on the Mickey pajamas first. Although she loves Mickey, she loves her Minnie pajamas even more. I will probably use one of my old t-shirts for that refashion. I also might keep the sleeves at 3/4 length. Oh, speaking of the sleeves, check out this awesome rolled hem. Swoon!
refashion: Even though the sleeves and legs of my daughter’s clothes are getting too small, the body still fits nicely. I’m getting lots of opportunities to be creative!
I finally got around to finishing up my daughter’s second pair of “Christmas” pajamas. We’re now calling them New Year Pajamas.
They are pink with little white flowers, but with the weather we’ve been having, my daughter has been calling them snowflakes. We’re supposed to get more snow tomorrow. I might let her were these all day long.
stash: I wish I could remember where I picked up this fabric. It’s so soft and thick. Nice and toasty for the chilly temps we’ve been having in The Heartland.
I was planning to make two pairs of pajamas. Only one pair got finished. When I showed them to my daughter, she said they were very cool, but she didn’t want to wear them to bed. I was a little crushed. Fast forward to today: they’ve been on for over 24 hours and she doesn’t want to take them off. Success?
The flannel was thrifted from somewhere—I’m starting to lose track of where I get these things! I was planning to use a Simplicity pattern, but didn’t have enough fabric. Instead, I used a pillow case pajama pants tutorial, and it worked out perfectly.
The top is just a plain t-shirt from Target. I added a little appliqué to help it coordinate with the pants.
I’m very happy with how these turned out. I’ll be making the other pair this weekend.
project notes: Making a pattern from measurements tutorial from Brandy over at Minivan Life. Very easy to follow. I highly recommend it!