Silk Pajamas

A couple of months ago my kids started Jujitsu lessons at a dojo at my local gym.  They go three times and week and I decided that since I had to go down to the gym three times a week to do drop off/pick up I may as well just do my workouts at that time.   The only problem is that I then come home and shower and then what? - what do I put on?

I've never been a big pajama wearer, but now I started thinking, you know what it might actually be nice to have a nice pair of pajamas.

And do you know what? it is really nice!

Whilst I do have a couple of commercial pajama patterns, none of them were exactly what I was looking for so, as per usual I ended up making my own patterns.

I started with the top.  I started working on this pattern back in January.  I used tissue fitting techniques with my then new dress form to create a basic pattern for a french seam darted top.  I used the pattern to make my red plaid shirt, but had to do a whole bunch of modifications to get the pattern to work with the fabric that I had chosen.  The pattern never got updated to reflect these changes, but I still had the original pattern pieces lying around so I thought I'd try and get them working properly.

There was some flannel material left over from my Axel Rose skirt in my stash so I decided to use that for my muslin. I cut out the front and back as per the original pattern and basted them together - they actually seemed to fit pretty well.  The only real issue was the dart size and placement.  Then I had to fit the sleeves.  I had a sleeve head pattern from last time but that was all.  I extended it full length and cut it out and it seemed to work quite well too.  bonus!  Only problem was I was running out of material.  I had to piece a whole bunch of little scraps together to get the two sleeves cut out.  So I grabbed some black flannel and finished the shirt with those.

I used the placket and cuff patterns pieces that I drafted when working on my Colette Rue dress to finish off the sleeves, and the front band, neck band and collar pieces from New Look 6704 extended as required to fit my new shirt.

It's not the best thing I've ever made (didn't bother with interfacing etc) but its wearable, and as a muslin it works perfectly.

Then onto the pants.  I pulled this beautiful navy knit fleece material out of my stash.  I cut out a basic pants pattern at the largest size and basted them together then spent a couple of nights wearing them, making tweaks here and there as I needed to get them as comfy as possible.

OK now I had my patterns it was time to get to work using real material.  But what material?  I didn't want them to be fleece or flannel, but I did want them to be warm.  I decided that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it properly.  I wanted silk!   I headed for the discount fabric shop, of course there was no silks that I loved there, but what I did find was a knit material labelled 100% silk that was patterned with flowers all over a blue background.  I'm not usually the floral type but figured pajamas I could get away with it.

Once I got my fabric home and washed I looked at it closely.  Turns out its actually a border print, so if I want the pattern to look the best I have to cut my patterns on the cross grain.  In one way this is good. My patterns were created for woven materials so they don't actually need stretch around.  I figured if I cut on the cross grain the garment would fit, it may just end up a bit longer then I expect.

I managed to get all my pattern pieces cut out of the 4 yards of fabric that I had which I was impressed with, though I did have to piece together the insides of the cuffs.

The next issue came when I started sewing.  I decided that I wanted my lovely silk pajamas to have french seams so that they are as nice on the inside as on the out.

The problem.  I only cut 1/2" seam allowances.  To get this to work I had to sew the seams wrong sides together at 1/8" then turn and stitch the seam at about 1/4".  Very precise sewing required.  To make it slightly easier I moved my needle as far to the right as possible so that I had as much fabric under the pressure foot as possible on the tiny little seams.

To account for the lengthwise stretch of the fabric I had to make a slight adjustment to the bust point, but otherwise everything came together very easily.

The cuffs are slightly narrower than the arms of the shirt so I used a gathering stitch to just slightly gather the sleeves into the cuffs.  I used some red piping along the edge of the cuffs and the inside of the cuff was turned up and hand stitched in place so there are no exposed seams.

I changed my mind about the collar about half way through and rather than the neck band and collar from New Look 6704 I used the single collar piece from the Claire Wrap dress.  I used the piping around the collar but not down the button band.

I found some beautiful glossy blue buttons when I bought my fabric, but decided at the end that I didn't want any gaping on my shirt so stitched the button bands together from just above the bust point down.  I did put two button holes in above the bust point, but the rest of the buttons are just for show.

The bottom of the shirt is  turned under twice at 1/4" and stitched and is curved up at the side seams.  Its also slightly longer int he back than in the front.

The pants are also french seamed where possible.

I used 2 rows of elastic in the waist band as I figured that would be the most comfortable. I added red piping around the bottom of the waistband and finished it off the top by turning both layers of fabric under twice and finishing with a zig zag stitch.

For the pants cuff I sewed red piping to both the top and bottom edge of the cuff and then the cuff was sewn to the bottom of the pants with the wrong side of the pants facing the right side of the cuff, the cuff is then turned to the outside and top stitched in place along the red piping.

All cuffs, button bands, collars etc were interfaced with iron on knit interfacing.

I love these pajamas.  So much so I've been reluctant to take them off since I finished them. I'm already planning another pair of silk pajamas for summer.