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Tutorial: How to make Pyjama Pants Part 1

How_to_make_pyjamas_thedreamstress.com

In my Absolute Beginners Sewing class we make drawstring bags, cushion covers with zips, and pyjama pants. Pyjama pants are an awesome beginners project because they are easy to make, are made from easy to work with fabrics, and everyone uses them – or at least knows someone who will (which is quite an important consideration in picking a class project!).

Beyond the ‘they work for everyone’ factor, I really like them as an intro to garment making, because they have just enough techniques to be interesting, without getting overwhelming, and they have just enough opportunities to work on fit, without getting bogged down in fit.

Also, even an absolute beginner can make a pair of pyjamas from start to finish in 5 hours or less. Results!

This is the process for pyjama pant making I like to teach to beginner sewers, because it (as mentioned) covers enough techniques, without cramming in too many, allows us to think about fit and alterations, and the process of assembling a garment, is quick, and almost fool-proof. It doesn’t follow a specific patterns instructions, because I feel it’s important that sewists understand that there are often multiple correct ways to get to an end, and you just have to figure out the ones that work for you.

My process doesn’t include pockets, because I hate the feel of them in pyjama pants.

Right, so let’s go make some pyjama pants!

Fitting:  

Start with a pyjama pants pattern.  I prefer patterns with side seams, like the one I am using, New Look 6321.  You can certainly use a pattern without side seams – just skip the step where you sew the long outside seam.

If you are really adventurous, you can even use an old pair of pyjamas to create a pattern.

Consult the back of the pattern envelope to determine which size you should use.  Choose based on your hip size.  If in doubt, measure across the pattern pieces at the hipline (just before the curve of the crotch seam) to check the actual measurement of the pattern – don’t forget to subtract seam allowances, and remember that you will need 4-6″ of ease for movement and comfort.

Now, check your pattern for things like length.  Hold the pants front piece up  so that the top of the pattern piece matches the very bottom of your ribcage.  The hem end  of the pyjamas should just trail on the floor.  If they are too long, shorted by folding up on the ‘lengthen or shorten here’  lines.  If they are too short, add length from the bottom end (pyjama pants are quite loose, so you can safely lengthen from the hem rather than at the lengthen line).

Cutting:  

Fold your fabric right side together, with the selvedge edges matching.

Lay your front pattern piece out on the fabric,  with the long, straight outer edge along the edge of your fabric.  This is a more frugal use of fabric, as it keeps the bigger piece along the central fold of the fabric.

I like to use pattern weights (in this case, large quilters rulers) to keep my pattern pieces spread out and weighted down, because it is faster and doesn’t damage the pattern piece, but you can pin if you prefer.

Laying out my front pattern piece.

Laying out my front pattern piece

Measure from each end of the grainline marked on the pattern piece, out to either the selvedge edge of the fabric, or to the central fold, making sure that the grainline is exactly parallel to the selvedge/central fold.

Measuring the grainline, making sure it is "/cm at each end

Measuring the grainline, making sure it is 7.5″/19cm at each end

Grainline is important: If the grainline doesn’t run exactly straight on your pattern your pants may twist around your legs and hang oddly.

When you are sure that your grainline is running straight down the pattern, you can start cutting.  Before you begin cutting, note the little triangular notches marked on your pattern.  They are used to match the different pattern pieces as you sew.

Cut your notches OUTWARDS, as little mountains, rather than cutting them inward.  If you cut them inwards you will have only .5cm seam allowance where they are cut, and you can’t let out the seam if they are too small.

It’s unlikely to matter with pyjama pants, but  I really recommend making a practice of doing this as you sew, so that you can let out garments if they are too small, don’t fit you properly, or if you grow and want to let them out later on, so you can keep wearing them.

Making pyjama pants thedreamstress.com3

 

Where you have a double or triple notch, you can just cut across two or three notch widths:

Cutting a double notch

Cutting a double notch

When you are done cutting your front, lay out your back piece just as you laid out the front and cut it.

When you have cut both pieces, mark the WRONG side of both front pieces with an F, and the wrong side of both back pieces with a B.

Pinning your long side seams

The marked fronts and backs

Sewing the legs:  

Match your right  front piece to your right  back piece along the long, straight outer edge (if they don’t match, you have a left front and a right back, or vice versa, so just switch your front piece for the other one, and they will).  Your notches will match up.

Pin the edge.  Pin so that the top edges match exactly, and any differences in cutting hang off the bottom hem, but so that you can sew from the bottom up (you should almost always sew skirts and pants from the hem upward).  You’ll have to think about how your seam will be heading into the sewing machine to get this right:

Pinning your long side seams

Pinning your long side seams

Pin with the heads of your pins hanging off the edge of the fabric: this makes them much easier to remove as you sew, and holds the fabric more securely.  You can adjust the edge as you pin, to make sure every part of it matches exactly.

Sew using a 1.5cm / 5/8″ seam allowance, unless your pattern is an unusual one that uses a different seam allowance.  Your stitch length should be a standard 2/2.5, depending on your sewing machine.

Sewing with a 1.5cm/ 5/8" seam allowance

Sewing with a 1.5cm/ 5/8″ seam allowance

With both outer leg seams sewn, pin your shorter inner leg seam, matching notches.  Remember to pin so you can sew from the bottom up:

Pinning the shorter inner-leg seam

Pinning the shorter inner-leg seam

Note that the back of the pyjama pants are bigger than the front (just like your back is bigger than your front), so it won’t lie flat as you do this.

Both seams of each leg sewn

The extra fabric on the back of the pant’s leg

With both leg seams of both legs sewn, you’re going to be finishing the seams with zig-zag stitching.  Set your sewing machine to a zig-zag stitch with a maximum height, and a fairly narrow width – I like 1.5, but it will depend on the machine.

Machine set to a high, narrow zig-zag

Machine set to a high, narrow zig-zag

Zig-zag finish all four sewn seams.  Remember to place your fabric so that the zig-zag threads wraps over the outer cut edge.

Zig-zag stitching

Zig-zag stitching

You can zig zag over your notches, or cut them off as you come to them.

You’ll now have two finished legs to your pyjama pants, with seams sewn and finished with zig-zagging.

Assembling the pyjama pants:

When you sew, you almost always put  right sides together, and match notches.

To put the two legs together with right sides together, turn one leg right sides out, but leave the other leg inside out, like so:

One leg right-side out, one leg inside out.

One leg right-side out, one leg inside out.

Now, stuff your right-side out leg into your inside out leg, from the top.  Notice how the right sides of the fabric will match within the tubes of the leg.

Rotate your inner pyjama leg, so that your inner-leg seams (the ones at the bottom of the U of the crotch shape) match.  Flip one seam one way, and the other the other, so that when you sew over them there isn’t so much bulk.  Pin:

One leg inside the other, matching the inner-leg seam.

One leg inside the other, matching the inner-leg seam.

Matching notches, pin around the rest of the U shape.  Don’t pin the straight top edge, as that will be your waist.  Pin on the OUTSIDE of the U, with (as always) the heads of the pins hanging off the edge of the fabric.

Pinning around the U shape.

Pinning around the U shape.

Remove your box or table from your sewing machine so you can do free-arm sewing, and slip the other edge of the U under the free arm as you sew around the U shape.

Zig-zag the U seam, just as you did the other seams:

The sewn and zig-zagged U seam.

The sewn and zig-zagged U seam.

Now, turn the pyjama pants right side out, removing one leg from the other in the process, and you’ll have a pair of assemble pant shapes:

Hurrah!

Pants!  Hurrah!

In my next post, I’ll walk you through the final steps: adjusting the waistline, sewing the waist channel, and hemming.

Rate the Dress: Peach, peonies and pastels in 1906

Last week I featured an 1860s dress in ever-so-fashionable aniline yellow, with black lace.  The dress elicited a very divided response.  A third  of you thought it was gauche and garish, a third of you found it absolutely  glorious and golden, and the rest of you could admire the bravery and the fashion-forwardness, even if it was a bit too wasp-y not WASP-y for your tastes.

The balance of adoration, abhore-ation, and mild in-period appreciation gave the dress a 6.4 out of 10, which is the lowest we’ve had in quite some time.

This week I have gone as far from bold, garish, and outre as possible, to the almost obsessively  delicate, subdued and detailed fashions of the first decade of the 20th century.

Day Dress in silk and silk velvet, ca. 1906, Girolamo Giuseffi (American, 1864-1934) G. Giuseffi L.T. Company,  Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986.405

Day Dress in silk and silk velvet, ca. 1906, Girolamo Giuseffi (American, 1864-1934) G. Giuseffi L.T. Company, Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986.405

This dress from the Indianapolis Museum of Art is made of peach pink silk, embellished with a profusion of pintucks, shirring, ruching, three-dimensional ribbon flowers, velvet detailing, and almost photo-realistic appliques of peony flowers.

Day Dress in silk and silk velvet, ca. 1906, Girolamo Giuseffi (American, 1864-1934) G. Giuseffi L.T. Company,  Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986.405

Day Dress in silk and silk velvet, ca. 1906, Girolamo Giuseffi (American, 1864-1934) G. Giuseffi L.T. Company, Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986.405

The bodice features the classic 1900s drooping pigeon breast, with the sheer silk revealing layers of detailing.  The waist is emphasised with a fashionable swiss-waist inspired corselet effect, highlighted with velvet.

Day Dress in silk and silk velvet, ca. 1906, Girolamo Giuseffi (American, 1864-1934) G. Giuseffi L.T. Company,  Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986.405

Day Dress in silk and silk velvet, ca. 1906, Girolamo Giuseffi (American, 1864-1934) G. Giuseffi L.T. Company, Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986.405

From a distance the dress  might look quite simple, all the detailing blending together into one whole, but the closer one gets to the dress, the more packed it is with embellishments.

Day Dress in silk and silk velvet, ca. 1906, Girolamo Giuseffi (American, 1864-1934) G. Giuseffi L.T. Company,  Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986.405

Day Dress in silk and silk velvet, ca. 1906, Girolamo Giuseffi (American, 1864-1934) G. Giuseffi L.T. Company, Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986.405

There are shirred panels of fabric opening up to form godet effects, and appliques on the hem, over ruffled underlayers, so that no part of the dress lacks interest.

Day Dress in silk and silk velvet, ca. 1906, Girolamo Giuseffi (American, 1864-1934) G. Giuseffi L.T. Company,  Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986.405

Day Dress in silk and silk velvet, ca. 1906, Girolamo Giuseffi (American, 1864-1934) G. Giuseffi L.T. Company, Image courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986.405

What do you think?  Overwhelmingly embellished and frilly, or the perfect example of Edwardian über-feminism?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10.

A week in my life

You get lots of glimpses of my life through posts about what I do, and what I’m working on, but I thought it might be interesting to get a look at my schedule for a typical week, to see what I do, and how I balance it all (answer: slightly precariously).

Like all my posts about my life, this is fundamentally honest, if occasionally technically un-factual, in pursuit of privacy.  So I may have fudged exactly what I did this particular week, and subbed in something from another week, or left out things that are strictly private.  But it’s still an accurate representation of what I do in a week.

SUNDAY:

This year, for the first time in 8 years, I’m not getting up early every other Sunday to teach Baha’i Children’s Classes.  I  get up early (ish) most  Sunday’s anyway, to head off to the vege market to    stock up on massive amounts of green (Mr D & I are slightly obsessed with fruits and vegetables).

This Sunday I had an even better errand to begin the day with – I met a student at The Fabric Store to help her pick fabrics for her latest projects: a 1930s dress and a Wearing History Air Raid Suit.   Qhile she was there she got enthusiastic about the Papercut Watson Jacket  (I may have influenced her slightly by raving about how fabulous the versions of it I have seen), and picked up the pattern and some pretty wool for that too.  I wasn’t planning to do any shopping for myself other than some black merino for a cardigan, but there was midnight blue velvet, and ’30s ish feather patterned cotton sateen, so I may have blown my budget for the next few months…

Then I ran off to the vege market for kai choi and kale, broccoli and pak choi, watercress and spring onions to feed the beast.

One of her favourite people

One of her favourite people

Then it was home for a quick tidy up, before  a friend came over to  spent the afternoon sewing.  The light was nice, so we sneaked in a few pictures, documenting a cardigan I made months ago (mmm…green) and have never photographed, and the shirt I made for afternoon tea.

The photos are kind of a fun bonus – first you hear what I do on a fairly average weekly bases, and now you get to see what I dress like on a fairly average daily basis (lots of cardigans and knit shirts made by me):

Sewing knits, thedreamstress.com1

Sewing knits, thedreamstress.com3

Sunday evening Mr D usually makes dinner – venison stew (from wild hunted venison) with kai choi, potatoes and onions.  Then we watch TV (We’re being very lowbrow and watching Dancing with the Stars, but other couple-friendly options include Would I Lie to You, QI, Hunting Aotearoa, First Crossings, and anything narrated by Attenborough), I sew, blog, and we play Scrabble – more than often all at the same time.

MONDAY:

Most weekdays I get up (not particularly early-ish if I can possibly get away with it), and have tea and toast with avocado  while catching up on blogging and FB, and checking the news.

Mornings of every workday are spent doing computer-y stuff:  answering emails, writing class descriptions, syllabuses, working on patterns, working on magazine articles, researching, blogging, doing accounting. Blah, blah, etc.  Certain amounts of housekeeping may get done during this time, depending on how much I’m trying to avoid writing.

Afternoons I run errands (trying to get this done before school gets out and the shops get crazy), sew, and prep for classes.

3pmish I have a late lunch, which will keep me until I eat dinner after class.

4ish I start dinner, and while it’s cooking I run around washing dishes, making the bed (it’s been airing all day, she says primly, for the benefit of anyone who thinks it ought to have been done earlier), and doing whatever other tidying I can smash in.

5:30 I head off to teach a class most evenings, and I’ll finish off sometime between 9:00-9:30, and come home to have dinner and a relax with Mr D.

Monday’s class was the first session of Absolute Beginners – always very rewarding because I get to send everyone home clutching a drawstring bag that they made themselves and are going to show off to everyone!  I love Absolute Beginners!

TUESDAY:

This week’s exciting deviations from schedule included scanning and photographing a bunch of magazine images and textiles for the next issue of Glory Days on Tuesday.  Lots of pressing and taking things on and off Isabelle and hoping that the light cooperated.

For dinner I made minestrone soup, with lots of basil (my basil bushes are just about done for the year), and real tomatoes.  They are getting really pricey, but it’s so much nicer with real than canned.

I had the night off from teaching, so got some sewing done.

Felicity got some laying in front of the heater being too lazy to bat her toy  done:

Felicity the cat thedreamstress.com

WEDNESDAY:  

Wednesday afternoon I spent with Madame O, draping a mid-19th c bodice on her, and working on the fit of my medieval gown.

Draping a mid-19th c bodice, thedreamstress.com1

Dinner was rice, grilled fish and steamed veg – I cook the rice, prep the veg so they just need to be turned on, and Mr D cooks the fish when he gets home.  Teamwork!

I  payed for my afternoon fun on  Wed night after class (Intro to Corsetmaking – such a great group of students this session!), when I had to scramble to write all the copy for my next Glory Days article, get all my photos edited and get it all in before midnight.

THURSDAY:

Most Thursdays I don’t have classes, so the days are a bit more relaxed.  I might treat myself to a trip to an op-shop or two, I do an hour or so of housework, and I try to make sure Mr D and I will really be able to spend time in the evenings.  This winter I’ve gotten into the habit of making him a roast dinner on Thursdays, which means a trip to Moore Wilsons (the closest Wellington gets to Whole Foods) for a meat-thing.

Mr D has his meat-thing (usually lamb, occasionally wild venison if I want to participate), roast veg, and steamed broccoli and carrots, and I have roast veg (cooked in a separate dish to the meat) and a kale salad with cheese and/or nuts for protein.  (this one is very nice).  It works quite well, as Mr D gets his meat, and I get my kale salad, a taste which I have, to my infinite disappointment, never managed to convince him to acquire.

After dinner we generally play Scrabble, he generally complains about my using textile words (“scroop is NOT a word”  “yes it is!”  “Well, what does I mean and I’ll look it up”  “It’s the sound that taffeta makes”  “NO WAY is that a word…oh…wait…huh.  Huh (glare).  I still don’t think it’s a real word”) and I generally beat him.  I lost this week though.

Possibly because I had this on my lap, distracting me.

Possibly because I had this on my lap, distracting me.

FRIDAY:

Just an ordinary work day, though this one got a little exciting because I needed to get a few large scale patterns printed for my class, and while I’ve printed these docs lots of times, this time they wouldn’t print, so there was a bit of a last minute scramble and panic.

On the bright (well, sort of, as you will soon see) side, the extra hour in town while printing left me with time to get a flu shot, and while I was sitting at the pharmacists afterwards, making sure I didn’t swell up or turn purple or otherwise have a very bad reaction, I got to make a few more medieval buttons (much to their entertainment!).

Felicity was disappointed I wasn't at home sewing though.

Felicity was disappointed I wasn’t at home sewing though.

Friday’s class was Pick Your Own Project for advanced students I’ve worked with a lot before – fitting the toile for the ’30s dress I helped to buy fabric for on Sunday, re-sizing a ’50s bodice, cutting other ’30s dresses in tricky fabric, working through a jacket, turning Wearing History’s 1890s jacket into a coat.  Fun times!

SATURDAY:

Mr D & I are quite addicted to the very Wellingtonian practice of weekend brunch.  Mr D likes Sweet Mothers Kitchen (Cajun inspired, with tea served in teapots with real tea-cozies), I like La Boca Loca (Mexi-Kiwi fusion), Marrakech Cafe (Moroccan, with out of this world Moroccan-inspired French Toast), La Cloche (French), Floriditas (it has paisley wallpaper and cinnamon buns that would make Sunshine cry, so the rest of the food is pretty irrelevant) and if I really feel like standing in like and being as Wellington-ish as possible, Maranui (upscale Kiwi).  Most weekends Mr D gets his way and we got to SMK, as was the case this Saturday.  It’s rather indulgent, but being mostly vegetarian and non-drinkers keeps our food costs way down the rest of the week, so it balances.

The weather was fine this Saturday, so we pushed ahead on the last few bits of the project that has been taking half  my weekends for the last four months: painting the exterior walls of the house.  We’ve got the whole back done except for tiny touch-ups on the windows and other bits, so we just need to polish those off and we’ll down brushes for the winter.

It’s amazing how much time the last few bits of painting take.  You think you’re almost done, and four hours of squeezing gap-filler for those teeny-tiny spots later, your hands are cramping, you’re chilled to the bone (it may be sunny, but it was cold), and if you are me, you’ve turned into an angry, snarling gremlin, because I’m like a weather dependent version of those Snickers ads: I’m not me when I’m cold.

So I stomped inside for a cup of tea, a bath, and a bit of time with Stephen Fry (I’m reading Moab is my Washpot) and my sewing.

Equilibrium and body temperature restored, I got dressed and we headed out for dinner at a friend’s.  Between all my friend groups (Baha’is, sewing friends, blogging friends, swing/vintage friends, other friends) and Mr D’s friends and family, it’s a rare weekend when we don’t have a party, a dinner, people over for dinner at our place, or a family event one day or the other, if not all of them on top of each other.

At dinner we were introduced to Bananagrams, which is a game I need to get my hands on asap: it was like an awesome-er, quicker version of Scrabble.

We got home with enough time for me to do a bit more sewing, and then it was off to bed, to begin it all over again!