McCall's 6659: Tapered Pajama Pants

I have had very little time for sewing lately. I have been working very hard towards a big promotion at work, which I just received, I have been focusing more on being active with my family, and I took a trip a few weeks ago with my oldest boy to visit family. It's been busy but very good. In the last 6 months, I have managed to make a pair of pajama pants. And I love them!

Pattern Description: McCall's 6659, view G, is a tapered-leg, elastic/tie-waist, cuffed-leg pajama pant.

Pattern Sizing: I made size 16, which was one size smaller than my measurements. I don't like my pajama pants with tons of ease.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Other than that I used cotton flannel instead of satin, very much so!

Were the instructions easy to follow? I had no problems at all, and I'm a fairly beginner sewer.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I wanted to try a cuff just because it was something that I was curious about and had never done before. I also liked the idea of a tapered leg. My legs are quite slender and I can feel a little dumpy in giant pajama legs.

My only dislike would be that for pajama pants, these are a lot of work. Double-layer cuffs, button holes, piping... but it pays off in the end product!

Fabric Used: Flannel for both the blue and the pink check. The piping is silk charmeuse. When you only need 1/4 yard, it's easy to justify! I cut it on grain. I knew I wouldn't really need to curve it and was willing to risk it.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: I lengthened the legs by 3 inches, but then ended up trimming a little off the bottom. I'd probably go with a 2-inch change next time. (I prefer a long inseam. Gotta keep those ankles warm!) I also shortened the rise by 1 inch. I cut this directly off the top since I wanted them to sit below the natural waist.

I also added pockets. I stole a pocket pattern from another pajama pant pattern and made it work. I may never go back to pajama pants without pockets.

Beware the length of the ties! I started off with the length of elastic and tie recommended by the pattern, and with the tie almost entirely out of the buttonhole, the pants still weren't tight enough. So I massively shortened the elastic and it's much better now.

Techniques used: I sewed all the exposed seams as french seams, including the pockets. (Thanks to Sew Mama Sew for the fantastic tutorial!)

I attempted to sew a bit of a thread tack at the top and bottom of the pockets to reinforce those stitch points. I'm not sure this is really what this stitch on my sewing machine was meant to do, but we'll see how it lasts. So far so good!

The pattern calls for understitching for the cuffs. I forgot to do them in the pockets as I went, but added it afterwards and it made a big difference.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I definitely will sew it again. I have fabric on the way to make two more pairs assembly-line style. I highly recommend the pattern if you're willing to take a little extra time with a pair of pajama pants.

I was really pleased with the piping on one leg, the other didn't come out quite as cleanly. I also was happy with the matching on the check. Matching patterns is probably my most intimidating task in sewing these days.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the buttonholes were, once I realized the best way to rip open the hole was with a seam ripper (and a pin at either end) instead of shears.

I took these pics without help, and my head was cut off. My apologies, but sometimes I just have to go with what I have instead of waiting for perfection. The fronts make me look a little hippy, but I am quite unhippy and don't mind.

The sides and the back are very flattering. Love that hint of pink from the pocket peeking out too!

Conclusion: Love them! And I feel so sophisticated and fabulous wearing them! That's saying a lot for pajamas!

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Frivolous photo: Last weekend my husband started working on cleaning up our laundry room and didn't stop until it was done. When my oldest was born (almost 5 years ago), we found ourselves asking over and over, "Where can I put this so he doesn't get into it?" The laundry room was a natural choice, and before long it became the tossing-ground for anything not needed for the moment. I wish I had a before picture. The pile was about 18" deep with a sort-of path to the washing machine and dryer. When I woke up the next morning, I had a sewing room! With natural light!! No decorating to speak of, but a place where I can leave projects in-work without having to put every last bit away. Yay! A thousand thanks to my darling husband!

One Year Later...

So, my son was born on August 20th, and here I sit a year later, finally starting to think about sewing and blogging again. What a year it has been!

I have accomplished a little bit of sewing in the last year. I finally finished up the curtains and crib skirt around Christmas time, although I don't seem to have any pictures at the moment. I'll have to take some. I also made my son a blank slate of a Christmas stocking for him to embellish in future years (another McCall's 5549).

I also made myself two pairs of pajama pants, both using Simplicity 2317, which I love. The second pair was in a green plaid. It was my first experiment with plaid, and it didn't get close to lining up, but it was a good learning experience.

I've been attempting to whip up two pairs of pajama pants for my husband using Butterick 5572 (finally a pajama pants pattern with pockets!). After several false starts I now need to start over completely because the baby got ahold of and shredded the pattern pieces before I managed to cut any of the fabric.

I have a new goal of making my son a Halloween costume before Halloween. I'm using Simplicity 2561, the pants from view B, right, and the top from view D, bottom left. I've never tried a shirt before, so there are definitely some challenges here. I feel like Halloween costumes are a good time to make mistakes, though.

Also on my radar is a quilt for my son, who will be ready for a bed and blankets before we know it, and a baby quilt for the next son or daughter, due April 2.

This may all be a bit overly ambitious, especially for a pregnant woman with a burgeoning toddler. However, summer is winding down, meaning more time indoors, my son is close to weaning, and I like to have goals. I may not get all these things done in the time frame I would like, but I like to have something to work towards.

Purple PJ Fix

I wear sewing project #1, the purple pajamas, on an almost daily basis in the colder months.  They are by far the warmest pajamas I have found to date.  For the second time now, the pajamas have come up with a hole in the center seam.

Knowing how these particular pajama pants were constructed, I dug up the purple thread and threw them on the sewing machine to stitch them up.

What I don't know is why this keeps happening.  On a basic level I realize that these pants get a lot of wear, and being so loose, especially have a strain point at the center seam.  But it seems that there should be a way to reinforce the seam so that would make it stronger.  So this time, I sewed two seam lines in the area where the hole occurred.  I didn't get the straightest seam in the world, but the pants are way too loose for that to ever be noticeable.

We'll see how that holds up.

MC Hammer Pajama Pants

For my first project, I wanted to tackle something easy and usable.  I decided on pajama pants as the ideal.  No sleeves or zippers to mess with.  And if they came out really terrible, I could still wear them without being embarrassed!

I stumbled on "It's so Easy" 3548 from Simplicity, so I picked out some nice flannel fabric from JoAnn's (in the middle of the summer in Denver) and got to work.

In the end, I was very pleased.  Not only did the pants actually look reasonably like pajamas one might buy in a store, but they were actually long enough! I have long legs, and while I can typically find ready-to-wear pants that are long, I have yet to come across long-length pajamas.  I didn't think ahead and cut the legs any longer, but I used a large size to start with and hemmed as little as possible.  Having pajamas that come down to the tops of my feet made such a difference in the cold winter months!

I call them my MC Hammer pants because the legs are VERY wide.  It's kind of like walking around wearing a blanket.