Sewing PJ's! - My latest makes
Hi there! I have been quiet on the blog for a while. You wanna know what I've been doing? Sewing! :)
I made myself some PJ's!
For those of you who don't know: I live in Stockholm (The capital of Sweden). It's a very cold place and spring has unfortunately not gotten here yet. And on top of that I am a very cold person. Not as in I have a cold heart or anything... just that I'm freezing. All the time. Therefore I like to wear a lot of clothes when I'm sleeping. To not wake up as an ice cube. I wear sweatpants and old t-shirts and hoodies and socks... things like that to keep warm.
Not too cute as an outfit in my opinion so I thought I would make myself something nicer to wear!
Said and done. I've had this jersey fabric in my stash forever. It's a gorgeous pink apple print that I think is so cute for this purpose. I don't think I would wear it as a tee for wearing in public but as PJ's it's perfect! And I love a set! Anything matching top and bottoms is a win. Be it a cute top and skirt for summer or PJ's - you can count me in. Next best thing after dresses am I right? ;)
The patterns I used for this set are the Stella joggers and Frankie baseball tee from Tilly's Stretch sewing book. I bought this book at the beginning of the year and I have read it cover to cover as if it was a novel. I love it! A part from being absolutely beautiful it's also full of inspiration, helpful tips and thoughtful texts about sustainable sewing, tools and everything you would want in a sewing book.
This book as renewed my love for sewing knits. I had forgotten how fast, easy and satisfying jersey sewing can be! And so easy to fit. I made no alterations to the patterns and the result is quite good I think. Tilly talks a lot about rotary cutting and cutting mats for jersey in this book and it finally pushed me over the edge to join the rotary cutting club... And now there's no going back! How did I even make anything without this mat before?? I do not know but I'm so happy this (pink!) mat is now a part of my life :)
Rotary cutting has changed how I feel about my jersey makes too. The cutting process is so smooth and professional now. I used to dread sewing with knits because I'm not as used to it as working with woven garments. Now I feel inspired and ready to expand my me made jersey wardrobe. I have more makes from this book and other pattern to show you in the upcoming weeks. I'm on a roll :D
Now for the patterns I used from the book to create this cute set.
The "Frankie" and the "Stella".
The Frankie tee is a baseball tee with raglan sleeves. At first I thought I wouldn't make this pattern from the book because it's a bit 'sporty' and not really my style. But when looking through the book for patterns to make in to sleepwear I thought it would be perfect.
It's a classic baseball tee but the fit makes it something special. I like the shaping around the waist and the curved hem. And it's not short, which is good. It's a very fast make and the instructions are superb. But as I said I don't think I would wear this for everyday wear. But who knows? I like the version they made with colour blocking so I might give that a try or make it in a pretty floral... we'll see.
The Stella pattern is actually a few patterns. I made the Stella joggers but there are also a hoodie and a hoodie dress. I have plans for the hoodie dress so you will be seeing a post about that soon for sure.
I made the joggers one size bigger than I normally would and that turned out to be a good decision. They looked very slim in the photos and I didn't want them to feel like leggings. I think the waistband turned out to be a bit too loose though so I might have to grade down at the waist/hip for my next pair. When inserting the elastic the waistband almost looks gathered because it's a bit too big. It doesn't bother me, just an indication to size down the waist for next time.
Have you made yourself some unique PJ's or loungewear? I plan to make more because let's be honest; it's what I enjoy wearing the most. I always made fancy dresses before that didn't get a lot of wear. Very fun to sew but not practical. I am trying to add more 'basic' me made pieces to my collection that I know I will wear. That includes some jersey dresses as well because secret PJ's are nice to wear too. Woven dresses and skirts are some of my favourite things to make but they are not my favourite things to wear. I love how they look but then after a few hours they get a bit uncomfortable. So a few jersey dresses will be a great addition to my me made wardrobe!
I skipped the drawstring on the joggers because I didn't think they were necessary for this make. And honestly I just couldn't be bothered to do the button holes that they are supposed to loop through. Next time maybe!
I didn't make any alterations to the patterns and I think they turned out pretty good. The fit is good except for the length of the sleeves and the legs. I'm quite tall and I have long arms and legs so it was no surprise. I will have to lengthen both sleeves and legs for my next pair. I made the tee with full length sleeves but they look pretty short on me so I rolled them up a bit for these photos. I will have to lengthen the pattern a few centimeters. And for the bottoms I think I will add around 5 centimeters to the length.
I used my overlocker to sew most of the seams and I used my twin needle for topstitching and hems. Creates a very professional finish if I say so myself.
The only thing that was bothering me about the patterns in this book is the seam allowances. If I make a jersey pattern for myself I add 6mm of seam allowance. That's what you need for an overlocker and that's industry standard as far as I've learned. These patterns have 1,5 cm seam allowance, which is a lot! It's not as smooth to sew on the overlocker when you have that much fabric to cut off. I found the seam allowances wanting to curl back in to the machine when it sewed, resulting in me having to hold the parts that were being cut off by the overlocker so that it would be caught in the seam. I hope that makes sense haha. Hard to explain. I don't know if I want to go through the trouble of cutting off seam allowance of all the patterns and I understand that they wanted to make the book inclusive for everyone, overlocker-owner or not. But even if you are using a zigzag stitch 1,5 cm is a lot. Just a thought and something I was a bit annoyed by throughout the process. What seam allowances do you prefer? Maybe this is a topic for a completely different blog post I will write some day :)
I like this book a lot so the big seam allowances are not an issue when considering how well drafted these patterns are and just the fact that I kind of got my sewjo back because of this book! I'm very happy about that.
Have you bought this book? What do you think of it? Let me know in the comments!
Have a wonderful day everyone and I will talk to you soon <3
♥ ♥ ♥
Josefine
Ploen Patterns