Girl's Summer PJs Refashion

With sincere apologies to my mother's lovely, gorgeous and talented friend, who made this nightie for her: I have refashioned it into girls' summer pyjamas.

The original nightie was super-fun to wear for the "before" photos: floor length and billowing fabric, but not so fun to sleep in. There was just too much fabric, and the underarms were a little too tight so the lace scratched my arms.

When I opened it up, I could see that it was just two straight rectangles, sewn selvedge to selvedge. It was very nicely done, and yielded about 2.5m of fabric, plus a lot of lovely lace and ribbon. I used almost all the fabric for these pyjamas, with none to spare. Partly because I had to work around a few stains as this nightie is quite a few years old.

For my pattern, I used Simplicity 1504 in the Child/Teen size M. There are a few printing mistakes on the pattern pieces, some of the child ones say teen/adult and are in fact child/teen. The sizing on this pattern is also a little funny in that the adult XS fits in between the sizing for the child M and L and then the child L fits between adult XS and S. They shouldn't bother with the whole child / adult sizing and just carry on up the chart, but I suppose customers are used to picking a certain size.

I shortened the sleeve to 28cm, to include a cuff detail. The legs, I shortened to the lengthen/shorten lines and then removed another 1 1/2 inches. I should have flared out for the cuff piece, the legs taper to the cuff and I lost some width when I turned them up.

I spent a long time adding piping to the front facings, the collar and the pocket pieces, plus the hem and sleeve cuffs. All told, it needed 3.4m of piping cord. I used one of M's old work shirts for the piping fabric. It was nice and stiff, which I needed since I was pulling apart a 3mm piping cord to make 1mm and the bumps show through if the fabric is not made of stern stuff. Plus, free fabric! All I had to put in to this whole project was the interfacing, piping cord and waistband elastic.

I made two breast pockets - the fabric is very sheer - and did a top hem, rather than piping around the bottom. I stitched a line of stitches around the fold lines of the pockets, and a row of gathering stitches around the corners to draw them up more neatly. Still didn't get rounded corners 'though.

I tried to start tracking my hours of work on a project. Not that I am trying to put a value on my labour - this is a hobby - but I thought it would be interesting to see how much time I do invest in these things. But I sew in bits and pieces of stolen time and if I record when I start, I usually forget to note when I finish.

After piping, a huge chunk of time was spent doing flat felled seams on every single seam. I stitched the seam allowance to the underside for the top, because this looks neater, and to the outside for the shorts, because I think this is more comfortable to wear. I used Carolyn's tutorial for sewing a flat felled seam on a curve. These meant that I had to set the sleeves in flat, and then sew up the side seams and underarm seams.

I added a back facing too, as I did for my adult version. I had forgotten that I'd done that. I think the collar is too heavy to just sit there on the back piece all by itself, and it neatens up the whole back neckline easily.

I made the cuffs by turning up the sleeves and leg cuffs. By sewing the piping to the bottom edge of the wrong side, I could fold it up, right sides together and flip it to the inside of the cuff piece. So the cuff is an additional single thickness, plus seam allowance. I made the separate casing for the waistband, thinking it was slightly smaller than the top of the shorts, meaning a few less gathers on the elastic itself. But it turned out to be the same size, so a higher rise would have been easier. I used 71cm of 20mm elastic. Since I can't at all tell the front from the back, I'll add a ribbon tie at the front.

The pockets would have looked better at hip height, but I wanted a bit of additional modesty at the front. You can see a pattern of her swimsuit through the sheerness of this fabric. Which my iron told me was polycotton.

Costs: 
 Fabric: upcycled, £0 
 Pattern: used previously, £0
 Notions: 
   Lightweight Interfacing, 50cm: £2.26
   Piping Cord, 112cm: 49p
   20mm white elastic, 71cm: 49p
   Buttons, from school uniform: £0
Total: £3.24

Birds / Alex / Rayon / Navy Shirt

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this pattern, the Alex Shirt from Sew Over It's e-book, My Capsule Wardrobe City Break.

I love that it is a super easy shirt pattern, it's extremely quick, and it eliminates all the fiddly bits of shirt making. What I don't like is the very large sizing, and the casual dropped shoulder. I am wondering if I should put on my big girl pants and get a proper shirt pattern. But I don't wear a lot of shirts, so I don't feel like slaving away over making complex details in my sewing time.

That's why, when this rayon wanted to be a shirt, I reached for Alex once again. I got the fabric at Spotlight in Australia in April. It was on sale for just under $12 a metre, so I got 1.5m for a shirt. I also got 2.5m of a black with pink/green/silver florals.

Learning from my previous Alex Shirt,  I sized down from a 10 to an 8, leaving the collar and neckline as a 10 (this because the 8 was cut away in places when I cut the 10). I also added interfacing to the under collar. Next time I would interface the tips of the sleeve tabs too. The final change I made was to skip the pockets. They would have spoiled the drape and the pattern of the fabric.

I found the instructions for enclosing the yoke seams very confusing. It says to twist the edges, but doesn't say in which direction, or how many times. I used the "burrito method", detailed beautifully in Grainline's Archer sewalong. I'll be using that for all yokes from now on. In such a thin fabric as this, I didn't even have to roll it up, it just sat nicely inside the yoke, and it was fun to have it spill out afterwards.

This pattern doesn't work so well in a fabric that has an obvious wrong side. The lapels aren't faced, and the one piece collar means that the wrong side shows where the neckline opens. I fortunately/accidentally managed to have a bird at each point of the lapel, so the lighter colour saved the look of the neckline, but if it had been the navy background, it would have showed the wrong side badly.

The rolled up sleeves also need a fabric that doesn't have an obvious wrong side. I added cuffs to the sleeves, so I can turn these up and then fasten with the sleeve tabs. I didn't gather the sleeves into the cuffs, nor did I make button plackets for them. They are just the same width as the sleeves and are 5 inches, folded over. I like wearing the shirt with the cuffs rolled up once and then gathered into the sleeve tabs.

I set the tabs much higher than the pattern calls for. I can't understand why the pattern has them so low. It would roll them to about bracelet length, which is a bit pointless since they could be rolled to this length and not need fastening. I noticed this before I did the buttons for my white shirt, so I sewed the buttons higher up the sleeve. They are not on the anchor point of the tab, just floating on the shirt. For this one, I placed them much higher up, and the buttons are sewn on the re-inforced part of the tab.

I had four small navy buttons in my stash so I spaced them through the front. Five would have been better, there is a bit of gape between them. I didn't make buttonholes, since I will never wear this shirt open. So much faster! I had two larger, non-matching buttons that were close enough to each other that I could use for the sleeves. 

I shortened the hem by 7-8cm, so I can still tuck it in, but also wear it untucked if I want. I find the City Break hems much too long. This photo shows the shortened hem. Imagine if that was 8cm longer.

Will I make another Alex? My head says no, but if I get another drapey patterned fabric, it might be too much to resist. 

Costs: 

  Fabric: 1.5m £10

  Pattern: used previously £0

  Notions: 

    lightweight interfacing, stash £1.13

    navy thread, used previously £0

    buttons, stash £0

Total: £11.13