bubby lub dis one
There's something deeply satisfying about sitting in front of my sewing machine with the radio on a cup of tea by my side and lovely fabric ready to go. Ahhhh, sewing, how I've missed you .... The truth is, with small kids around, it's much easier to pick up my knitting needles than to sit at my sewing machine. It might be because knitting is so much more portable and it's easier to pick up and put down. My sewing machine is noisy, stuck in one place and it's more obvious that I'm "doing something else". Or, possibly it's just me. Get me in front of the machine and I'm reluctant to leave without something finished ... so dinner gets delayed, kids don't get in the bath and we end up with fish and chips for dinner surrounded by threads, fabric scraps and general chaos. True story.
Friday afternoon I indulged in a little sewing and I'm loving Tess' new pajama bottoms. The fabric is the softest organic brushed cotton - from Cloud9's Nursery Flannel collection; Ele-fete in Shell and Crumbs in Shell. I bought half a metre of each from The Village Haberdashery and cobbled them together to make two pairs of pants, with not a scrap of fabric left over.
The pattern is from Meg McElwee's lovely book that I've mentioned before - Growing up Sew Liberated. I used the basic pocket pants pattern, but squared off the pattern piece for the front and left out the pockets. I made the pink dotty pair first (Tess' favourite - or in her words ... "bubby lub dis one") and sewed them according to Meg's instructions, including her "no itch seams" which involve sewing the seam selvedges down. Although it looks pretty smart on the outside, I didn't like the finish inside and so for the elephant pair I zoomed up the seam edges with my overlocker (serger) which was both neater and faster. (I grew up with my Mum's sewing mantra: "it has to look as good on the inside as the outside" - it must have sunk in!) You'll see the pink pair have the waistband facing on the outside, but for the elephant pair I popped it on the inside. It seems more pajama-ry that way.
And finally, these cute bottoms are teamed with a pair of soft 100% cotton long-sleeved white vests from the boys section at M&S, for the perfect mix and match pajama sets. I did plan to embellish the tops with some of the fabric - but like I said, none left!