PJ's for my Posse

It's "Ski Week" here in Manhattan Beach, which for me translates to "Sew Week".  You won't find me complaining about getting an extra week off from school between Winter Break and Spring Break.  Time off is always good, if you ask me.  I'm not sure how it's possible, but I get far more sewing done when the kids are home, then when they are in school.  I guess vacation for me is just an excuse to laze around, enjoy our home, all the things in it, and let the creative juices flow uninterrupted.

I have a ton of stuff I've been wanting to run through my new serger machine.  I pulled it out the other day and started going to town.  I've lost some weight, so some of my yoga pants and leggings are a bit stretched out.  At this point, it would make more sense to buy new ones, but I figure it will be a fun experiment with my new serger to see if I can take them in, get some more life out of them, and save some $$.  I'm wearing a pair right now and they feel nice and snug, not slouchy and saggy, like they were prior to taking them in.  I took in two pairs.  I ran both the inner leg seam and the crotch through, taking off about an inch.  Man, this machine rocks.  Not only does it handle stretch fabrics perfectly - no bunching or ripples - but it cuts the fabric and finishes everything so clean and professional looking.  On my regular machines I could never have done this so quickly or clean.  I had two other knit skirts that were slightly off or warped from attempting to sew them on my regular machine.  I quickly whipped them through the serger and - ZAP!  Better than new.  :)  I also fixed a pair of leggings with lace trim that had stretched out on the bottom.  It handled the lace with ease.  I haven't even figured out how to use all the settings.  I've just been using the one it came set up on - the four thread system.  I can't wait to learn all the bells and whistles on this thing now that I am less intimidated by the threading process.

One of the projects I had on my list was to make some new PJ's for the kids.  Grammy gave us this cool dinosaur print she found at the thrift store.  (She gave me some great Coca-Cola print recently, too, that I made into PJ pants for a Christmas gift - picture to come.)  I also had some black fleece that has been laying around forever.  I figured the two would look really good together.  

I used this pattern below.  I have only made the pants from this pattern up until now.  I used pattern B for the PJ top.

This is a great pattern, especially for the pants.  The top came out a little big, but I did use fleece instead of jersey, so that might have a little something to do with it.  Either way, for PJ's it makes little difference.  It's super soft and cozy and that is all that matters to my kids.  They love fleece.

Here is how they came out:

Bayne's

Aubrey's

I love matching PJ's on my kids for some reason. :)

I have discovered that I love making PJ's for them, as well.  Mainly because it is the one thing I make that they always love and never complain about wearing.  They love my appliqué shirts, too, but anything else is a questionable as to whether or not they will wear it out of the house.  Sad, but true.  That's ok, though.  I have tons of random, weird print fabric laying around that I always wonder what in the world I would make out of it and now I know.  PJ's.  

Here are some of the other PJ's that I made using this pattern.  The adult ones are from another pattern.

Matching Coca-Cola PJ's I made as a Christmas gift for myself, my Mom, and the kids.

Aubrey sporting hers.  I didn't make the top, but gave her a hand-me-down shirt of Bayne's (shhhhh!).

I still haven't gotten a picture of Bayne in his, but he wears these cool, multi-color striped, hippie pants I made him as PJ's.  I thought they would be cool as actual day wear pants, so I used the same pattern, but added a pocket to them in the front and on the sides.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, they don't always like what I make, so we just made them PJ's and miraculously they get tons of wear now. 

Here they are playing Wii together in their comfy, handmade PJ's, from fabric that was gifted to me. 

It's the simple things in life like this that make me smile.  It's almost like they are wearing my love ... a little portable hug that wraps around them when they sleep and play.

I hope they are sleeping sweetly in their new dino pj's right now.  Wrapped in Mama's love.