American Girl Molly Pyjamas

Emily Bennett is modelling a pair of, her friend, Molly's Pyjamas today.

These are from the back of the internet archives, where the AGD original patterns are available.

It is so much fun to see how different the original company was, before it was sold to Mattel. The clothes are far more historically accurate, but much less commercially appealing.

I have made Molly's Party Dress so I set about making her pyjamas too. These are not the same as the ones that were on sale with the Molly doll at the time she was last withdrawn from sale (Dec 2012). These are red and white stripes that happen to be the exact match with the girls school uniforms. So I have plenty of fabric to hand. I asked my fellow parents who run the second hand uniform sale if I could have any of their cast off shirts and summer dresses. These would normally go in the bin because they are too stained or worn out to sell as used. The winter shirts are especially good because the girls wear a pinafore over the top. The lower back and lower fronts of these are typically completely unmarked.

So I had my fabric and my pattern, and I really did need to get on with these to make the Emily doll some Molly pyjamas. 

I finally got the kick I needed when Youngest told me she was looking forward to seeing which of her dolls would be wearing a new outfit on the morning of her birthday. Oops! Nothing was planned! I realised I needed to get making in September to be on time for Christmas so that the elves could dress the dolls for Christmas morning. (In reality, I completely forgot I had these to give and she got them a month later for her birthday.) 

It is a very fiddly pattern. I find all the doll patterns fiddly, especially because of the 1/4 inch seam allowance. This one was the worst so far! The collar is part of the front bodice piece, so you have to make the notch. I didn't get my reinforcing stitch exactly on top of the first run of stitches, so it wouldn't lie flat until I cut one of the stitches. The back of the collar is not nicely rounded, very pointy. If I did this pattern again, I would create a more curved shape here. Finally, sewing the back to the front, around the collar, took quite a bit of mental energy. The pattern says to stitch all in one line, along the shoulder seam, then back, then the other shoulder seam. No diagram either. I found it easier to join the back neck to the collar piece, then clip the pieces so I could get the shoulder seams to touch each other. I sewed these separately. I would have had to do some fancy folding if I hadn't clipped. I didn't get the curved pocket to curve nicely. I would do a square pocket next time.

As usual, there are no instructions to finish seam allowances. Possibly because these patterns are for experienced sewers, so no hand holding. The fabric doesn't fray too much and the garment won't be washed, so I was tempted to leave them as is. I zig zagged the back neck, side seams and cuff seams, for a neater finish. But it wasn't overlocker-worthy.

The waistband instructions for inserting elastic in the pants didn't work for me. Instructions, as followed: zig zag elastic to top of raw edge. Fold over, sew two rows of straight stitch, while stretching, one to top edge, and one to bottom edge. Maybe I wasn't stretching hard enough, but the two rows of straight stitch made the elastic too loose and wavy. Unpicking them is tedious work.
I tried replacing two straight rows with a second row of zig zag instead. It was still wavy and I don't like how it leaves the raw edge exposed on the inside. Unpicked again and added a waistband to make proper waistband channel. (I also prefer this method because if the elastic goes, it can easily be pulled tighter or replaced.)

The cuffs on the trousers were a bit of a faff, and the finishing wasn't great, so I used the same method as I did for my PJ shorts, thereby enclosing the raw edge inside the cuff. If I made these again, I would attach separate cuffs in the method of the sleeve cuffs. It's much easier to do and I don't like the non-matching cuffs between the top and the bottoms. One of them has the stripe running horizontal, the other vertical. 

I did real buttonholes, the girls are old enough to manage fastening them by themselves. The tie belt was left unfastened and the recipient prefers the pjs without the belt and the belt being used as a hair ribbon!

Cost: free