Time for a Pajama Party!

I hope that you are having a great Thanksgiving weekend!  Do you go out shopping on Black Friday?  While Black Friday is the official start of the holiday shopping season, for me, it is the official start of the holiday sewing season!  I usually stay home and start my gift giving sewing. 

I love to sew pajama pants and robes for holiday presents.  Although I make them for my family, I had not made myself a robe and pajamas for years, so, I decided to treat myself to a new set.

We live in Illinois where we can get bitterly cold winters, so I chose Fabric Mart's sky blue polar fleece for the robe.  This is a higher quality fleece than the fleeces you can find in the chain stores.  It is light, stretchy and velvety soft.  My cat with claws has not yet been able to snag it, which means it should last for years!

The robe pattern is McCall's 5769, with 13 inches added to the length.  This pattern is now out of print, but really any robe pattern will work.  The main differences in robe patterns seem to be whether you want a shawl collar or not, and whether you want inseam or patch pockets.   

Applying Wonder Tape to interfaced band.  The black is a fusible knit interfacing.

My trick for professional looking pockets and front bands is to interface them with a lightweight knit interfacing, then use Wonder tape to adhere the stitching area.  If you've not used Wonder Tape before, you must try it!   It's a double sided tape that takes the place of pins, and it is ideal for pockets, zippers, or anything that you don't want to shift when you are sewing.  I also use a double needle to top stitch the pocket top, attach the pocket to the robe, and to stitch the front band down. 

For the pajamas, I used a rayon lycra knit.  Rayon knits are breathable and super soft.  I know that especially at this time of year, you can buy all polyester pajamas that are super cheap.  I really prefer to sew my own out of a breathable fabric.

The pattern is McCalls 7061.   This is a new release with several variations on the standard hoodie plus shorts, pants, and booties.

The bootie pattern was a little vague on the sizing, and I cut the Large because I wear a size 9 shoe.  It ended up being HUGE, and I ended up cutting it down a couple of sizes to fit better.  My old fleece robe is  the black lining.   Check out the cute gripper fabric with feet for the bottoms!

My fabric was super stretchy, so I interfaced the kangaroo pocket with a piece of lightweight knit interfacing to  keep it from bagging, and to keep the edges  from waving.  Next, I applied Wonder Tape to attach the edges to the shirt front.

Pocket prep with fusible interfacing and Wonder tape.  Neckline stabilizing with twill tape.

I also serged in a twill tape in the hood/neckline seam because it was going to stretch out of shape unless I added in something to stabilize it.  I buy twill tape in bulk because it is a soft, inexpensive way to stabilize.  Just feed it into the serger stitching line as you are sewing the seam.

I’m SEW happy to have my new pajamas, robe and booties!   What presents do you like to sew for your holiday gift giving? 

Have a great holiday weekend!

Ann