Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Sick girl cozy (aka pajama) pants tutorial

I quickly looked this morning for a tutorial on kid pajama pants and google gave me nothing. I like tutorials with a TON of pictures and so I figure that you must too! Soooo without further ado, my very first tutorial:


Today I have three outta five kids home sick. Poor guys got all dressed for school, brushed their teeth, and then I had to make the executive decision of keeping their little feverish bodies home. Anyhow...
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Whatcha need:
  • however much fabric. I used 45" and it ended up being about 3/4 yard for a girls size 6
  • matching thread
  • elastic for the waist band. I used 1/4" but you can use whatever you have on hand.
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1. I started with a pair of the girls' pajambo's and turned them inside out.
2. Then I folded my fabric in half and, on the fold, pinned down ONE of the pant legs.
3. See how I followed the seam there where the two legs meet? After matching up the seams, I used a lot of pins to assure accuracy and pinned the bugger down.
4. Then, after cutting the lower portion of the leg (adding about 1/4" of fabric than the original + about 2 extra inches at the bottom of the legs), I folded the other leg back over the pinned one and added about an inch there, essentially tracing the existing leg + an inch. Does that make sense?5. I took pant leg #1 and pinned it down and made an exact replica. We now have two legs. Yeah!
6. Then, I put on my Ella, Sarah, Billie mix because... well... it was just necessary.
7. Then take one of the pant legs and, right sides together, pin all of the way up to the corner (future crotch area).
8. BUT when you sew, stop about a 1/2" to an 1" from the corner. Do this for both legs.
9. Now pin the two legs together, front and back, making sure that all corners line up. Start from the waist portion and head down. I say this because the crotch part of this will most likely have a teensy, unsewn hole that we'll work on next.
10. Now, make sure that your hems are all lined up and push the two folds together so that no hole will exist after we sew this bit.
11. Pin this small four-corner.
12. Now sew and make the crotch hole disappear. Duh Nuh! I just followed the existing seam and made the two meet.
13. Iron the leg hem. Now let's start on the waist. Fun! This isn't taking that long, is it?
14. Fold the waist down, wrong sides together, about a 1/4" and sew all of the way around. Make sure that your seams line up or else it ends up looking... well... looking homemade.
15. Next, fold the waist over another 1/2" and sew ALMOST all of the way around, minus about a 1" gap for the elastic band to get in. I just sewed on the existing line.
There's your gap
16. Now I measured her waist by wrapping the elastic around it and cutting it the exact same size as her waist. Why? Because IT'S ELASTIC and it needs to stretch. Just watch.
17. Arm your elastic with safety pins on both ends.
18. Now shove one side of the elastic through and then pull so that both ends have about 3" hanging out.
19. Woops... no picture for the next step but sew the two ends together. I overlapped them about 2" and went back and forth and back and forth with the sewing machine to secure the bugger.
20. Now pin the elastic up up in the fold to assure that you don't sew over it. Then sew the gap in the waist band closed (follow the existing line).
*Then Miss Z tried on the pants (to make sure that the waist felt cozy) and she decided that she wanted them to be capris. Well that's easy!
*Just chop off 4 1/2" off!
21. Then like we did with the waist, match up the seams and fold over about 1/4", wrong sides together. Pin away. And sew. Do this for both leg cuffs.
22. Then fold it over 1/4" again and sew again.
*Wah Lah! Don't wear your school clothes on a sick day! Be Cozy Sick Girl!


*These are optional steps.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woo hoo for you, your first tutorial and what cute cozy pants they are for the sick Princess. Hope everyone gets well soon and it doesn't travel to and through the rest of the house.

Anonymous said...

Woo hoo for you, your first tutorial and what cute cozy pants they are for the sick Princess. Hope everyone gets well soon and it doesn't travel to and through the rest of the house.

Rebekah said...

Well done. I am going to have to make my girls some. thanks for the tip

Anonymous said...

Cute jammies. What a treat when you're sick to get stylin' jammie jams. i think that must be better than ice cream.

Raquel said...

Southy,
Mr P prayed tonight that "God would stop EVERYONE ELSE from getting sick". Poor Husband hot sick too...

Rebekah,
Your welcome! I wonder... was it even worth it? Took me FOR FREAKIN EVER to put the tutorial up there. But of course, for you, it's worth it!

Dancer,
Is there anything better than cute and cozy pajambo pants? It's all that I can do to keep my regular clothes on sometimes. I just want to let the belly out in some jersey draw strings... ahhhh...

Mrs. S said...

Thanks so much for this tutorial. It was easy to follow with great results. I am addicted.
Thanks again!

Cynthia said...

hooray, this is exactly what I wanted. My fabric is on its way from Joann.com. Now I can make the jammies!!

barlow said...

i am curious to know more about adoption...my husband and i are currently missionaries in the philippines and are thinking a bit down the road bout adopting....thanks for the tutorial and fun reading! God Bless

barlow said...

i am curious to know more about adoption...my husband and i are currently missionaries in the philippines and are thinking a bit down the road bout adopting....thanks for the tutorial and fun reading! God Bless

Me said...

I love that tutorial! I have been looking for a clear one for a while now and finally found it! My older daughter grows like a weed and I can never finds pj's that fit her right. Thanks!

Jenny said...

Hi - i'm new at sewing... i don't understand all the pinning at the beginning. Are you making the back part of the pj bigger than the front? Hope this question makes sense...

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Amy F. said...

Thanks for the great tutorial. I also went through Google and found the posts on there confusing. I couldn't figure out how everything fit together. Thanks for the great pics. Made 2 pairs tonight in about an hour and a half! Yeah!

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hooray, this is exactly what I wanted. My fabric is on its way from Joann.com.

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julie said...

Thanks for the tutorial! I would love to hear more about your family! I would love to adopt... how did you afford 4!!?? Beautiful family!