The Perfect PJ's

Do you have that favorite thing that you always wear, that fits perfectly, and, when it starts to wear out, you think, hmmm, I think I can make a new one? That would describe my favorite pair of flannel pj pants, and early last fall, I bought the flannel, but never got around to them (what with Lady Grey taking over my sewing projects... and, ok, a few other things). Then I read about the press and seal pattern copying method over on Lindsey T's blog. Great!

But then, I ran into a wee little problem. These pj's are worn, and the cotton is stretched and distorted. I could tell when I drew the crotch seam that this was just not going to work. I pressed on though, because I have a pj pattern.

Well, I couldn't actually find the instruction book, but I found the pattern pieces, XS-XXXL all on one page. Great! But my RTW pants fit perfectly, so I just lined them up and traced the shape that most readily fit. No measurements were taken in the making of these pants. Get this... for the front piece, I traced the XS! You read that right. eXtra Small! For the back piece, I traced the large, for the waist width, but used the crotch seam for the small. And I narrowed the leg width on the back. Due to fabric limitations, I had to make the capri length. It would have taken several adjustments with a muslin to come up with that configuration, so using the perfectly fitting RTW as a guide worked great. At least for a simple garment like this.

Over at K-Line, Kristin is trying to reproduce her favorite bra, and it took some destruction. But I didn't want to go that route with my pj's, so I'm happy to show you, for about 4 or 5 hours of my time, start to finish:

Got 'em on right now!

And with a tummy full of blackeyed peas, here's hoping the rest of my 2011 goes just as smoothly, and yours, too!