winter sewing: pyjama time

We've got a quick one today. I made a couple of pairs of pyjama bottoms for other people last year but kept putting off making any for me; partly because I couldn't find the right fabric, partly because it just wasn't very interesting. But it's now December, it's getting pretty damn cold, and though I do have trousers to wear around the house, I just feel better if I'm wearing something I made. Plus I already made a blog post promising that I would. So I bought a Sew Over It Ultimate Pyjamas kit - pattern, fabric and elastic, something I could knock up in a couple of hours.

I've made a judgement call on photos - they're coming inside until the weather is less horrible. Taking photos in the living room really isn't the issue it used to be since our living room is 50% glass and full of natural light, but after two years of living in a place I can only describe as Gloomy As Fuck, I haven't fully accepted this yet. 

This was a super quick and easy project. I made a couple of changes - flat felling the seams, omitting the ribbon bow at the front because I am not a ribbon bow woman, and changing the waistband construction. The pattern instructions tell you to sew up the waistband separately then attach it to the trousers and overlock the seam allowances on the inside, but I'm not sure why I would do that when I could attach the bottom of the waistband to the trousers, fold it over and sew it up with all the seam allowances enclosed. I am all about enclosing my seams. I wasn't intending to bother pattern matching but then it turned out that my cut pieces almost matched up, so I aligned it properly to stop any future eye-twitching. 

In terms of fit, these are comfortable but not especially loose on me. I watched the video that Sew Over It put out when they released the kits, which was all "oh, these are actually incredibly super-loose and if you don't like incredibly super-loose you might want to size down", and for my thighs that was not true. (I put them on my boyfriend for comparison/amusement, and while we have the same waist size his legs were just swimming in these, so I imagine that if you're not as exaggerated as either of us you'll be somewhere in the middle fit-wise.)

Incidentally, I'm not sure I'll bother doing the kit thing again. I did it this time because I only wanted a pair of traditional tartan PJs, but normally I don't care for having the fabric already selected for me, and also there was a lot of waste paper from the pattern. Next time I'll just buy my printer a new ink cartridge instead. 

This top isn't really a pyjama top per se. It's another Concord sweater thing, and it's my favourite. It's so soft and so easy to throw on and I'm wearing it to death. I often do wear it with these pyjama bottoms around the house, but when I change to go out I often put the jumper straight back on. I didn't want to give it its own post, even though I love it, because I have absolutely nothing new to say about it. I made it exactly the same way as my leaf version, but it's somewhat looser because this knit is stretchier, and I didn't put a band on the bottom.

Added bonus of bringing the photography indoors: doing photoshoots sitting down. Also it means you get to see that our Christmas tree is currently a coffee plant with some tinsel on it. We tried decorating him properly last year, but he wasn't strong enough for it and got all upset and droopy. Welcome to life in our house.