DIY Pajama Sets (And we've got some catching up to do...)

Hi everyone! It's been awhile! How ya been?
Over here we've kept busy. But now both of my girls are in school and I will have some time to start blogging again! Yay!

   Want to know something funny? That was the intro I wrote to a post 2 MONTHS ago! So much for time to blog. J Somehow things get so busy that there just isn't time or energy for posting anything....or my husband has dibs on the laptop. :) 

     But anyway, can you believe the year is almost over?? Me neither! Everyone is another year older, both girls have started another year at their respective schools, we got our fill of fried foods at the State Fair, Halloween has come and gone, and now our attention is on Thanksgiving.

      Sadly, I haven't done much cooking-for-a-blog-post lately. There definitely hasn't been a lack of kitchen time though. (Did you know that the people in this house expect dinner EVERY night?!? sheesh! ;) )

     Seriously though, October was filled with making Halloween costumes and included a trip to the mountains. 

    This month has found me wanting to make a lap quilt for the couch, and other things. J (And all the while, every free minute has been used to read up on homeschooling. But that is a whole other thing. J) 

     For Halloween this year, Kyleigh was a Snowflake Fairy and Abby was Dyna Mite, a Lalaloopsy character. 

     And now, we get to what prompted to want to write a blog post. I got it in my head that I wanted to make a small quilt (similar to a lap quilt but maybe a little bigger) for the couch to snuggle under as the weather gets cooler. (By the way, highs for my neck of the woods starting Sunday are in the 40’s. That's a little chilly for this girl.) So I spent one of my "alone mornings" at Joann fabrics. I found what I needed for the quilt, but I also found some flannels on sale. And it hit me. Why not make my girls matching pajama pants? 

    So I bought a black, pink, and turquoise plaid flannel fabric. (Along with the other stuff because, well, let's be real. Who walks out of any store with "only one thing"?) 

So after I got home, and after I picked the little one up from preschool, I hunted down a pair of Kyleigh’s pajama pants that fit her well. I folded them in half and pulled the crotch out as far as it would go; then set them aside.

    I stretched the fabric out on the table. Then fold it in half with the selvages matched up. (Fold it length-wise, like a hot dog. J ) Then take the top selvage edge and pull it back so that the selvage lines up with the fold you made when the fabric got folded in half. Flip the fabric over carefully and fold the other edge back to the fold. 

Now along one side, you have two folds and 

along the other side you have one fold sandwiched by the selvages.

    Lay out the pajama pants on top of the folded fabric. The straight side of the pants needs to be even with the side of the fabric that has two folds – so the crotch of the pants is essentially “pointing” to the side of the fabric “sandwich” with one fold and the selvages.

    Now it’s time to cut. Leave 2 inches from the top and the bottom of the pants and ½ inch around the leg and crotch.

    Open up your cut pieces of fabric and lay them together, right sides facing together. (If you'd prefer to pin to make sure the fabric doesn't move on you, go ahead and do that now. I didn't pin these together because the flannel held itself in place pretty well.)

     Now you are going to sew up the two curved edges. Personally, I like to do a straight stitch first with a ½ inch seam allowance and then go back with a zigzag stitch at about a ¼ inch allowance. (I found another stitch on my machine that I used this time that I liked. I think it is called a blanket stitch.) I sew all of my seams twice because, well, my kids are very active kids and I like the idea of reinforcing the seams to hopefully help the pants last a couple days longer.  (I really wish I had remembered to take pictures of this step so I could show you, but I forgot. :-/ )

    Next, I find it easier to go ahead and sew up the cuffs of the pants before sewing the legs together. (For these pants, I wanted the cuffs to be a little more visible so instead of sewing them on the inside of the pant legs, I sewed them on the outside.) Fold up the edge ¼ inch. Sew just below the fold. Fold the edge up again, this time doing 1 inch. Sew about a ¼ inch from the first seam.

    To give it a little extra flair, I used a zigzag stitch in purple (after using black for the two straight seams) between the two straight seams. 

   Now open up your pants and match up the crotch seams you have already sewn. What you are holding up should resemble pants. If they don’t, fold them the other way. You don’t want to spend half your time sewing the edges together only to hold it up, realize you have a weird looking skirt instead of pants, and then spend the rest of your night ripping out two sets of seams. True story. Just trust me on this. Begin at the crotch, and sew down one leg. Go back up, start at the seam, and go down the other leg. And now, when you hold it up, you have pants (just without a finished waistband)! Yay! J Nearly there!

    There are two ways you can approach the waist. (Well, three ways if you’d rather to drawstring. )

1   1)      You can fold the edge down about ¼ inch and sew just below the fold. Then, fold that edge ½ inch down plus the width of the elastic you are using. (So if your elastic is ½ inch wide, like mine, fold down the edge of the fabric about an inch.)Begin at one of the crotch seams and straight stitch as close as you can get to your first seam from where you folded down the raw edge. Sew all the way around but stop and leave yourself 1 to 2 inches. Pin a safety pin to the edge of your elastic and feed it through the waist. Sew the beginning and the ending edges of the elastic in place after you've fed it through. Then close up the hole you left. And you're done! Give yourself a pat on the back. J Or some chocolate.

2   2)      Determine the width of your elastic and add ¼ inch. Place the elastic that far down from the raw edge of the waist. With the end of the elastic on top of one of the crotch seams, stitch a couple straight stitches – this is to hold the elastic in place. Now adjust your machine to do the zigzag stitch with a stitch length of four. Beginning stitching along the top edge of the elastic and pull the elastic as you sew. (It helps me to pull the elastic as it comes out of the back of the machine.)  Once you have sewn the elastic in place. Fold the raw edge of the fabric over the elastic and sew, still using the zigzag stitch and still pulling as you go. And voila! You’re done. Give yourself a pat on the bag. Or some chocolate. J

    I did get a little carried away and I added a pocket to the girls’ pants. J

    I took the whole project one step further and decided to make it a pajama set. I bought some long-sleeve shirts from Target, cut two hearts out of the leftover flannel fabric, and appliqued it to the long-sleeve shirts. And DIY pajama sets! J

Kyleigh's pajama shirt.

Since I forgot to take pictures of all of the steps, I recommend checking out this site if you need to see those steps. I found it helpful when I got stuck.

Thanks for reading this very long-winded post! J

Excited when her pants were done. :)

I haven't gotten a picture of Kyleigh in her pants and her shirt yet, she's been too busy sleeping in them. :) But here's Abby in her pajama set. :)