My version of a Pillowcase (Kinda!) Nightgown ... Hannah's matching (but not) PJ's

As I mentioned in my last post, Bethany celebrated her 5th birthday with a Pyjama-themed party.  So of course, as Bethany got some new PJ's Hannah needed some too.  Now I've mentioned before that I'm not a huge fan of the matchy-matchy-sisters-in-matching-outfits thing.  Well, I still don't love the idea of them wearing EXACTLY the same outfits, but there is something just a little bit cute about wearing coordinating outfits with matching elements.  Maybe this Mummy is just a massive nerd (actually, that's definitely true), or maybe this just fulfills Mummy's secret wish to have a sister (I have 2 brothers).  I dunno, but I just loved the idea of Hannah wearing matching (but not) PJ's to Bethany's party.  I also thought Hannah's cute little chubby legs and those soft squishy baby shoulders would look just adorable in a pillowcase-style dress ... and was I right or what!?!

My intention had been to make Bethany's PJ's (to ensure the birthday girl had her new PJ's), then do some internet searching to find an easy pillowcase dress tutorial.  Well in my usual style, my plans were a little ambitious compared with the actual time available, and I had literally an hour from start to finish to be able to get Hannah's outfit done.  No time for searching blogs for good tutorials (though I'm positive there are many better ones out there than this).  I had just enough time to wing it and pull this quicky off.  Here's how I did it:

I used:

- About 1/2 Metre / Yard of pink gingham fabric (I used yardage instead of an actual pillowcase), but there will be leftovers from this amount.

- 1 yard of lace

- 1 1/2 metres / yards pink ribbon

- Coordinating cotton

- Sewing Machine

- Overlocker (Serger) if you have one

- Cutting mat, scissors, rotary cutter and measuring tape

This made a nightgown to fit my petite little 15 month old.  You could always adjust the measurements of length and width to better fit your munchkin if you need a different size.

The How To:

1. Fold the fabric in half to make a rectangle measuring 8 inches wide (equals 16" when opened out), and 16 inches long, and cut 2 of these.

  

2. Cut an arc out of the top corner pieces of the rectangle (not the folded side) like so.  I just freehanded this arc, but it starts about 3" down the side of the rectangle, and ends about 2.5" in to the top edge of the rectangle.

3.  Place the cut rectangle directly on top of the other rectangle, and use the first as a guide to cut an identical arc on the other piece.

4.  Open out your rectangles like so, and place on top of each other.

5.  Sew down the side seams, and finish with an overlocker (serger) or zig-zag along the seam to stop the fabric from fraying.

6. Open out the seams, and overlock/ zig-zag around the arc (which is the arm hole), then turn under 1/4 inch and sew down.

7. Next overlock across the two straight top edges, then turn down 1 inch and sew abour 1/8 inch from the overlocked edge.

8. Sew a piece of lace (or ribbon/ric-rac/whatever takes your fancy) along the top to cover the row of stitching you just made.  At each end, simply take the lace around to the back, tuck under 1/4" and sew in place.

9. Overlock around the hemline of the nightgown, then tuck under a 1 inch hem, and sew around.  I didn't have enough lace left to put lace at the bottom as well, so I used some pink ribbon that matches the ribbon which will form the straps.  I think it looks cute too!

10.  Grab your ribbon and measure it along the top edge of the nightgown.  You want it to gather up the nightgown, but you also need some room for tying a bow, so cut 2 pieces of ribbon at the length of the top edge plus approximately 5 inches (Mine were about 17 inches long).

11.  Use a safety pin to thread the ribbon through each side of the dress.

12. Tie a bow in each end of the ribbons, joining the two pieces of ribbon together to make the sweet little straps.  You can gather the fabric onto the ribbon to make it easier to tie, and to get the cute gathered look in the nightgown.

13.  Once you have the front and backs of the nightgown gathered as much as you like to sit properly, I suggests making a little row of stitching across the ribbon where it exits the neckline casing at each of the 4 places, just to hold the ribbon in that position.  It stops the nightgown from un-gathering (not sure if that's a word, but we'll go with it!)  You can see from this photo that I hadn't done these extra little ribbon-holding stitches yet, and it kinda just looks like a square piece of fabric.

See how much cuter and dress-like with this little bit of additional stitching.

Oh, love that little rice-farmer squat! 

Anyway, enough gushing about my cute tiny person!!  

So, both my girls have nice new summer PJ's.  Pity it's starting to get cold here now... might just have to find a winter PJ pattern now!  Oh, and stay-tuned for my how-to on hosting a kids PJ themed party.  

Super-Quick Pyjama Tutorial ... And a sneak peak!

I've now well-and-truly christened the new overlocker (serger) that I was lovingly given for my birthday in February (good work Daddy), though it did take me much longer to get to it than I had hoped ... Wow, this whole starting big-school thing puts your life into chaos, hey!  Anyway, with Bethany now settled into school, and the rest of us slowly getting into our new school-time routine, I found some time for some much-needed sanity sewing.  And just how cute are these PJ's?  Anyone who knows me will know that I will find any, yes ANY excuse to sew with gingham, especially pink gingham, and these PJ's are my latest gingham project.

So, why cute new PJ's? ... Well this PJ tutorial is a little sneak peak at what is to come in the next few weeks.  I have a couple more posts planned around a birthday party we're having next week for Bethany's 5th birthday, which was last Thursday.  We weren't going to have a party for her this year 'cause we had a big one last year, and she's only just started school a couple of months ago, so we're still learning who her group of school-friends will be anyway.  But one day Bethany proudly came home from school and announced that "Mummy, at my birthday party, everyone is going to wear their pyjamas and we will be eating breakfast food".  Well, with all her new friendships and her excitement at what was obviously a VERY well-thought-out party theme, and with the creative juices that instantly started flowing in Mummy's mind, I couldn't bring myself to burst my her little party bubble, and we decided we'd go ahead and do it. 

Now, you certainly can't have a pyjama party without a new pair of PJ's, and the following is my how-to for these super simple and mighty quick little jammies...

The PJ pants:

What you need:

- About 1/2 metre/yard of pink ginham (or I s'pose you could use another fabric if you're not into gingham ... I might even forgive you for that!)

- 1 1/2 metres/yards of lace (optional)

- 1/4 inch elastic for the waistband

- Coordinating thread

- Small piece of coordinating 1/8 inch ribbon (for the bow - optional)

- Sewing machine 

- Overlocker / serger (if you have one, otherwise just use a zig-zag stitch on your sewing machine)

- Scissors

The how-to:

1. Make a pattern by tracing a pair of pants / shorts that fit (I made this pattern when making a pair of shorts that you can see here).  If using a shorts pattern, lengthen to desired length ... I chose to make a 3/4 look.  Oh, and don't forget to add seam allowance to your tracing when making your pattern ... I used 1/4 inch.

2. Cut out 2 pattern pieces on the fold.

3. Open out and place right sides together.  Sew the top curved seam, using 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Then overlock (serge) or zigzag the seam to stop fraying.

4. Now when you open out these seams, it should resemble something like a pants shape.  Sew the inner leg seam (right-sides together) from the bottom of one inner-leg, up, around and to the bottom of the other inner-leg.  Then overlock or zigzag this seam too.

5.  Iron all the seams, then at the waist, iron in 1/4 inch all around.  Fold down another 1 inch, and pin, then sew around the waistband approximately 1/8 inch from the bottom edge, making sure to leave a 1/2 inch gap for inserting the elastic.

Then sew another row of stitching parallel to the first one and about 1/2 inch up from it.  You don't need to leave a gap this time.  This makes the cute little frill at the top of the waistband which I think is especially cute on PJ's.  Oh, and I always inset a little tag of ribbon at the back, because Bethany likes to know which is the back when getting dressed.  In this particular pattern, the front and back are the same, but it makes life more peaceful to just choose a "back" and put a tag for her!!  Any other Mummies hearing me??

6. Measure your munchkin's waist, and cut your elastic 1 inch longer than that measurement.  Use a safety pin to thread the elastic through, then overlap the ends by 1/2 inch and use a zigzag stitch to sew the ends together.

7.  Have you ever noticed that tops/pants that could easily be worn by day, are often recognised to be PJ's simply because there is a little bow on the front?  Well, I decided that to avoid any doubt these PJ's needed that little bow.  I tied a little bow using a piece of 1/8 inch ribbon, and sewed it to the front.  Yep, in case you hadn't guessed I'm a little nuts for details like that!

8.  Now, hemming the legs - Using your trusty overlocker (because I can now .... if you don't have one you could totally just double over the hem like we did for the wasitband ... that's what I have done for every project til now!!) overlock around the bottom of each leg, then turn up 1 inch, pin and sew.  I then decided to add a little piece of lace around each hem, covering the hem stitching line.  

Pants finished!!!

The Princess PJ Top:

Now, I have been toying with trying a flutter-sleeve design for a while, so decided this was a good time to give it a go.  Here's what you need:

- A Singlet top (mine was $3 from K-Mart)

- Some scraps of coordinating fabric

- 3 buttons (if appliqueing a crown)

-  Coordinating thread

- Sewing machine

- Scissors

1. Take a piece of scrap fabric from the pants, and fold in half.  Make a curve like so, with the high end equal to approximately 3 1/2 inches, and the straight edge at the bottom approximately 9 inches (when opened out).  Once you have one, open it out and use it as a template to cut 3 more, so you will have 4 pieces in total.

2.  Place two pieces right-sides together and sew around the sides and curve using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Leave the bottom straight edge open for turning.  Repeat with the other 2 pieces.

3.  Turn through so right sides are now out, and iron them flat.  Repeat with the other sleeve.

4.  Now overlock (serge) along the bottom straight edge.  I overlocked this because ... well ... I can and I was having fun with my new toy!  You could also just tuck the raw edges in and top-stitch it closed if you prefer!  Repeat with the other sleeve.

5.  Along the straight edge, you will need to stitch a row of gathering stitch.  Set your sewing machine stitch length to the longest length (on mine it's No. 6), then stitch along the straight edge 1/4" from the edge.  Do not back-stitch at either end, and be sure to leave a tail of thread.  As you sew, it will begin to gather itself slightly, and that's fine!

6.  Very carefully pull one thread from the tail and this will gather up the fabric.  Play with the gathers to get them even.  I tried to concentrate the gathers towards the centre so the ends are fairly flat.  Then tie the threads at each end to stop the gathers coming undone.  I gathered mine until it was approximately 6 inches long.  Repeat with the other sleeve.

7.  Turn the singlet inside out and attach the gathered ends to the inside of the armhole with pins.  I found it easiest to pin the middle of each flutter to the shoulder seam first, then pin back to each end.  Repeat with the other sleeve.

8.  Sew these in place using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Flutter sleeves complete.

For the Applique: I felt that this little top needed a little something on the front.  I googled "Free Images Crowns" and found this crown shape.  Printed it off, cut out a piece of gingham in this shape, then used some iron-on visaflix (heat and bond) to hold it in place on the shirt and give it some stability before using a small zigzag stitch to sew around the edge.  For the jewels I used pink pearlised buttons sewn to the top of each point.  I was really happy with this look, and needless to say Bethany LOVES it.  She has had to be talked out of wearing these PJ's to bed before the party next week (it would be nice to at least TRY to have them looking fresh and clean for the party).

How hilarious is this little hand-on-hip model stance ... she's fantastic!  She pretends she doesn't like modeling the clothes I make, but I'm pretty sure she really gets a huge kick out of it!

Anyway, hope you will enjoy making these simple and quick little PJs.  Stay tuned for a post and tutorial about the matching, (but not matching) new PJ's Hannah will be wearing to Bethany's party!