Qantas Pajamas into a McCall's 4488 dress.

A little while ago I made myself a shirt from McCall's 4488. Whilst I was pretty happy with the fit of the pattern out of the envelope - with a few minor adjustments to width around the waist and hips - the only thing I didn't love was the seam line under the bust.  I've always had a problem with any sort of pattern like this - either made or bought,   The seam tends to cut right across my breast rather than sit underneath it.

However  I thought that this pattern was close enough that I might just be able to get it to work.

I traced off the pattern and started making adjustments.  My first attempt did not go well.  I lowered the entire seam line by about 1.25", scooped out the center front seam to come right down underneath the breast whilst also adding extra length to the front top piece.

the lower lines are the new lines of the pattern

This did not work.... the new seams was way too far beneath my breast now, so I went back to the drawing board.  For my next iteration I took the seam line back to the original location at the underarm and just left the more pronounced scoop at the center front.  I did leave some of the extra length in the front top piece, but not all of it.

modified pattern

Whilst the seam line still does not sit completely beneath the bust I think I prefer this.  If I took it down any further the detail would be lost all together.

 I also decided that I wanted to make a few other slight changes to the pattern at this point.  I felt like the top gaped a bit too much around the neckline so I took the shoulders up by about 1/2". (and then correspondingly lowered the armholes about 1/2").  I also took about 5/8" out of the center back seam at the top tapering to nothing at about mid back.  This gave a much better fit.

As this was going to be a trial piece again I didn't want to use up any of my good fabric making this.  Instead I went through my "to be recycled" bag and found a pair of Qantas business class pajamas.  These are the pajamas that they give to business class passengers on long haul flights... that had probably been given to me by either my in-laws or my husband after one of his business trips - we actually have a couple of pairs of these lying around.  I cut the back out of the back of the PJ top, the top front out the sleeves and that left just enough room on the front of the PJ top to get the lower front piece and the neck and armhole facings, leaving just the kangaroo logo left over.  However after realising that the first draft was not great I had to figure out how to re-cut it to the second draft of the pattern.  The top front was fine, I could just cut that down to the new size I wanted, however I needed to add a piece onto the lower front to raise that seam line.  In the end what I did was move the pattern piece down till I could fit the new pattern onto the existing piece of material, and then did the same with the back piece, effectively cutting a couple of inches of length off the pattern, thankfully I'd cut it long enough in the first place that this didn't create any issues.

I made another modification to the pattern when I finished off the neckline.  Rather than turn the facing all the way to the inside I only turned it half way, then top stitched it down with a zig zag stitch to create the look of a neckband finish. The armholes I finished simply by sewing in a small facing.

At this point I was happy that I had a new T shirt that I like and that fitted well, but I decided not to stop there - I still had the pajama pants lying around after all.  I decided to keep it really simple.  I took the pants, cut off the waistband at the top, cut up the inseam and resewed the front and back seams into straight seams to create a pencil skirt.  I then had to cut up the side seams on each side to just above the knees to allow me to walk.

 I wasn't entirely sure how this would turn out so I left the existing hem on the shirt and sewed the shirt to the skirt with a long stitch that would be easy to remove if I decide I don't like it.  I sewed a 1.5" wide hem to attach the two pieces together, then turned the seam down and stitched again to create a waistband and threaded 1" elastic through it.

 I'm not sure if I love the skirt on it and if it will stay, but I've noticed that in the couple of weeks that I'd had this made I've reached for it numerous times for all sorts of occasions, it is comfortable and easy to wear so its a winner in my books.