Day 16: Cozy

The kids are demonstrating just how cozy they feel in their flannel jammies. I made all of them except for Baby Sprinkaan’s. Each of the girls got a nightgown and a set of button-up pajamas and Konik got two pair of button-up pajamas — his other pair has monkeys and balloons on it. Granota’s nightgown is blue with little brown owls and Rana’s button-up pajamas are hot pink with black foxes.

The boy and girl button-up pajamas are unisex, but I used a different pattern (McCall’s 6458) for Konik’s than I did for the girls (Butterick 5853) because of size differences. I ended up preferring the pattern I used for the girls because it was much more straightforward. The Butterick pattern was put out in 1998 (I picked it up at a thrift store), but the McCall’s is recent. I guess, in trying to improve on a basic pajama pattern, they went and made things needlessly difficult. For instance, the button placket on the McCall’s is a separate piece to sew on rather than just an extension of the front which is then folded over (how things like this are normally done). Also, there was quite a large cuff on the sleeve, which looked cute, but in practicality was a pain in the butt for all involved. First of all, I probably shouldn’t have interfaced it, despite what the pattern told me to do. It was just too heavy. It didn’t fall naturally on Konik’s wrist and, because he’s a 6 year old boy, he ended up tearing it at the seam. Repeatedly. I got so tired of repairing that stupid cuff seam, that I just tore the whole thing off. He was horrified and wailed and cried and told me how mean I was. He got over it after a day or two. That was on the monkey pajamas. I learned my lesson, then, for the train pajamas and just extended the sleeve length to account for the cuff I wasn’t going to put on it and just hemmed it in a regular folded hem. It works much better! The Butterick pattern was already written like that, so I didn’t have to make any modifications on the girls’ pajamas.

The nightgown is actually from a tunic/dress pattern (McCall’s 6500). It’s super simple with an elastic neckline and at the wrists. In fact, I have made iterations of this style numerous times, a several of which have already been shown on this blog. It’s a good workhorse.

There you are: a good dose of coziness and cuteness.

Toasty warm

The cold weather kicked in all of a sudden up here. I noticed that the girls’ winter nightgowns were looking awfully short and snug (not in a good way). I’ve gotten several seasons of nightgowns from Simplicity 5118, even making tissue paper extensions when the girls outgrew the printed pattern.

But they’re both long past that now, so first I had to find a new pattern. I located McCall’s 6500 which was nearly identical to the previous one, just in larger sizes.

I don’t get the bunny.

The flannel selection at Joann’s was a little disappointing this year. I didn’t find anything that appealed to me, but once I laid eyes on the penguins, I knew that was the right choice. When I picked up Rana from school that afternoon, I showed her the fabric and was met with squeals of joy. Yep, right choice. Granota had a similar reaction when I got home.

Nice and long

Roomy for pulling legs up inside on a cold morning

I’ve made this so many times that I didn’t bother with the instructions. It’s a little freeing to just set to work, knowing exactly what to do. Both nightgowns were completed in two days. Breezing through a project like that got me in a productive sewing mood. I’ve got a dress for myself all cut out on my sewing table! If we can get this cabin warm enough so that I don’t feel paralyzed from the cold, I’ll finish that up this week.

I’m not kidding about the cold. Often, it’s about 52 degrees when we wake up in the morning. But at least the girls are warm at night in their flannel nightgowns (and the rest of us just pile on the blankets)!