Movie Night Pajamas IV and V

As I've mentioned, the Movie Night Pajamas by Sew a Little Seam, a free pattern!, is my absolutely favourite pajama pattern. I had already made two of these for myself and one for Gaby and I knew I wanted more of these. Last week, while fabric hunting, I came upon a 2.5 m precut piece of viscose knit, which looked perfect for a pajama set with its deep dark blue and purple colors and yellow moon-like circles. Fitting two full size pairs of pajamas into a piece of fabric 2.5 m at 1.4 m width was a bit tricky and I had to play quite a lot of pattern tetris, but I was successful in the end, without having to resort to compromises.

The original pattern comes with two necklines - crew neck and scoop neck with or without plackets. So far I've always made my pajama tops with plackets - probably the most difficult and time consuming feature of the pajamas. Although the plackets are operational, I never unbutton them, but I consider them essential for the esthetics of the pajamas, otherwise the set would look to me like a simple T-shirt with a pair of leggins (which it basically is :).

From experience I found that the scoop neck is a bit too low for my taste and the crew neck is a little too high, so my Goldilocks neckline is somewhere in between the original two necklines. I made both of the pajama sets identical, with the middle ground neckline and a placket, the only difference is the color of the buttons (yellow for Gaby) and the length of the pieces - full size for Gaby and 2-3 cm shorter for myself.

I believe both of us have pajamas to last us the year:), but this last one is definitely my favourite!

Leopard Tunic

I watched and read quite a few disappointed reviews of the latest Burdastyle magazine 06 / 2021, but for me this is one of the best issues lately. I want to sew at least five or six of the patterns and I was lucky to win three of them free by participating in a survey on the Burda ru site. 

My first make is top # 114. I had a piece of rayon knit, a fairly large remnant from a Movie Night Pajamas I made for myself two months ago. I'm definitely not an animal print person and this fabric wouldn't have been my first choice if it wasn't for its tempting price (it was on discount) and super soft and stretchy texture. I do not regret sewing my pajamas for a minute, they are definitely the most comfy PJ I've ever had and frankly - my preferred piece of clothing, if only I could stay in my pajamas all day :)))

I hate to throw away fabric and I try to use up all of my remnants, so I was saving the remaining leopard print for probably a t-shirt of some sorts, but hadn't gotten to it. And when I won the three Burda patterns, it occurred to me that the leopard rayon knit would be ideal for a wearable muslin for  top #114.

The top, which is the shortened version of dress #113, the actual pattern I got, is tailored and features a gathered bust area. As I am fairly slim and small busted, such dress design is very flattering on me and I plan to make at least two more versions of this pattern - a short black dress and a long flower print dress. I don't have the fabrics for neither of these future dresses, but that's my plan, anyway.

As Burda patterns are made for height 168 and I am 156 cm and I have narrow shoulders and back, I had to make quite a few mods on the pattern:

• I shortened both the front and the back by 2 cm above the waist
• I shortened additionally the back by 2 cm at the level of the arm opening
• I eliminated the dart at the back neckline
  
• I narrowed the back by straightening the line from the waist to the neck
  

Trying to match my animal print to the texture of the rocks around :)

Pattern: Burda top #114 06/2021

Size: 36, modified

Fabric: rayon knit

Time to make: 2 days

 

 

This is the Movie Night Pajamas I made for myself from the same fabric, I can't recommend enough this free and supercomfy pattern!

And because I still had some scraps, I made a pair of bikinis for myself as well, using Megan Nielsen's Acacia pattern and two different types of elastic for the finishing. Ever since I bought my serger I haven't bought a single pair of undies (blushing) I love sewing them from scraps, they take so little fabric and are such fun to make!

Teal Men's Longsleeve

Last year before Christmas I bought a large piece of double knit fabric in teal color to make something for my husband. Apart from brick, teal is one of my most favourite colors and I am constantly drawn to it. If I'm not mistaken, this is the third piece of teal fabric I have bought from this fabric shop and definitely not the last. It's just that when I enter a shop the first items I see are those in burnt orange and teal and never beige (which is my husband's favourite :))

The inspiration for my make was a men's longsleeve with front neck button placket. I recently acquired the men's and women's Movie Night Pajamas by Sew a Little Seam and I thought the top was actually a pretty good match for the longsleeve loungewear for my husband I had in mind.

I have never made button plackets on knits before, but the pattern provides very detailed verbal and pictorial instructions that are absolutely fool proof. I am very happy with the way my button placket turned out, exactly as I had expected it.

The fabric that I used is a polycotton blend in double knit, very soft and pleasant to wear. However, it is a nightmare to sew with the straight machine - probably because of its ribbed structure. I had to redo and redo the double needle hem, as the needle kept skipping stitches and tearing the thread and in the end the only remedy was to sew through a thin piece of paper.

Although the color on the pictures looks plain blue, in real life it is much closer to the small inspiration picture.

As the width of the fabric was about 2.20 m, I had plenty of remnant fabric for two more blouses. Alex declined my proposal for a matching longsleeve, so I made myself one and I'm in the process of finishing a second blouse.

Pattern: Men's Movie Night Pajamas

Size: LG

Fabric: double knit, polycotton

Thread: black polyester (overlocker), teal (Elna 2300)

Time to make: 2 days

Cowl Neck Top

Several very awkward flat pictures of a top I managed to make for Gaby at the end of 2020. It is a sort of a Frankenstein of ideas and pieces I borrowed from various patterns and with some minor issues it did turn out fairly nicely.

The basis for the top is my true and tried basic Shkatulka short sleeve top, which I have used for a number of modifications now, as I know how it fits us both. The inspiration for this top came from a video by Stitched up!, one of my favourite sewing vloggers. I followed the instructions word for word and I think they are quite legit, however the neck opening of the starting pattern should be much wider than that of the Shkatulka top. For the cowl neck to drape beautifully it needs width at the neck, so a closed up crew neck is not a good option. Тhis is my only issue with the resulting top - the cowl does not drape enough, it is more similar to a boat neck. Next time I will start from a scoop neck; we live to learn :)

The original Shkatulka has a simple short sleeve and I wanted bishop sleeves, so I took the sleeves of another top I made this year - blouse 101 from Burda 03 / 2020. For this purpose I constructed a new sleeve with the cap of the Shatulka, continuing into the bishop sleeve of the Burda blouse, but shortened and attached to a sleeve cuff.

The side gathering of the blouse was an inspiration from another Burda pattern I bought, but I still haven't made - blouse 103 from Burda 08 / 2020. For the gathering I used black elastic thread in the lower bobbin of the sewing machine and I am truly happy with how it all came out.

Gaby wore the blouse on New Year's eve in combination with the plaid pleated skirt I made for her and I think she looked gorgeous. Pity we couldn't take any nice modeled pictures - before we knew it time flew and she had to catch her plane back to Prague, so I had to quickly take a few flat photos of the blouse literally a couple of hours before her departure.

And another flat picture - my first finished sewing project for 2021. I had plenty of the french terry with the butterflies, so I made another pajama top. This is the same pattern and almost the same top as the pajamas I made at the end of December, the only difference is the shorter sleeve cuffs and the added bottom cuff - I actually like this version better than the first. And I love to use up all of the fabric. Now that I am through with this french terry, I can move on to something new and more exiting. I actually just cut it, but more about it next time :)

Butterfly Pajamas

Last month I bought about 1.2 m of french terry in a colorful butterfly pattern. The fabric looked very beautiful in the shop and I imagined it as a light hoodie for Gaby. I even bought a pattern of a cute hoodie from Grasser.ru. However, instead Gaby requested a new pair of pajamas, as her flat in Prague is rather cold. My fabric was not sufficient for the top and the bottom of a PJ pair, so I went back to the fabric shop in search of a coordinating fabric for the bottom. Gaby wanted it in blue, but all the suitable fabrics were not blue and all the blue fabric was not suitable for pajama bottoms, so in the end I bought a meter of ponte in this purple color.

For the top of the pajamas I used my true and tried Shkatulka top with some minor corrections in height and extended width, as this french terry is not very elastic. I have a decent amount of fabric left, almost enough for a second top, but I am hesitant, as i don't think the fabric is suitable for PJs and I should have probably stuck with my initial plan to make a hoodie out of it.

The PJ bottoms are the personalized pajama style pattern I got last summer from lekala.com. The ponte is a bit softer and the bottoms are not that bad, but the whole color and fabric choice is overall very wrong. The color scheme is childish in an unflattering way and I don't think the PJ will get much wear. 

But! Today I acquired the ultimate PJ pattern (IMHO) - just what I was looking for - the Movie Night Pajamas by Sew a Little Seam and my hands are itching to make a proper pair of PJs. Can't wait for Monday, when the fabric shops will be open again!

Études in Jade

Two quick makes for Gaby out of cotton fabric I was gifted last year. Though the pictures don't show it, the color is very loud jade, which none of us liked much and I've been racking my brains what to make out of it. Then came carol's suggestion to try lekala.co and I was inspired to cut a pair of simple pajama style bottoms out of it for Gaby, to be worn at home.

The pattern is the free pyjamas pants, customized to her measures. I am absolutely blown away by the idea and I'll be definitely trying the site with more interesting and complicated patterns soon. As for this pair of pants, they came quite as advertised,  very easy and straight forward to make, they fit her well as for pajamas, probably just an inch short. I should have checked the length in advance, but I had so firmly decided to try the pattern as is, that I didn't take any of my usual preliminary measurements. There is only one piece of pattern, which is cut twice, no pockets, no waistband. As the front and the back are quite similar, I added a little red tag to the back to make putting them on correctly easier.

As I had some piece of fabric left, I decided to make a little top too. While the color is too loud for dressy pants, she reckoned a little summer top in this color could be wearable.
The pattern I chose is Easy smock top by lovesewingmag.co.uk, a free pattern, which I already made last year. It is another easy pattern, which comes out enormous, but I "hacked" it by adding elastic shearing to the waist. However, my first top was made out of soft cotton gingham, which gathered beautifully, and this jade cotton is much heavier and creates a bit too much volume. I should have reduced the width of the front and the back by at least a total of 8 cm, which I will probably do, if I decide to make this a third time.

Gaby wanted the top to be crop top, so I cut it just above the waist and experimented with the finishing by folding the edge in half and hemming the blouse with the same elastic thread as the shearing above. I was lucky to have a sewing thread in the exact color of the fabric. All my seams are flat felled seams and I did add a little red tag to the back of the blouse too.
I need to find a way to make my own tags real soon!