Truck PJs

My son, who was very unhappy about me snapping his photo even though you can't see his face, in his truck jammies that I made for him last week. I'm lucky that I got this photo taken because he didn't want to stand still!

He's growing and he didn't have any cooler jammies to wear as it gets hotter outside. I've had this fabric for quite some time and I made another set of warmer jammies out of another fabric that I'd had that is the same type of fabric. It is that knit and it's kind of stretchy. Well, I used a pattern that I'd gotten for the other set and I ended up not liking it very well because it ended up being so baggy on him. So this time I just took a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that fits my son and turned them inside out to use as the pattern.

I folded the shorts in half and made sure the seams were all nice and flat, then I traced around the shorts right onto the fabric, which I had folded with right sides together. I made sure to trace around with a 1/4 inch seam allowance on the sides and enough on the bottom to fold over twice to make a hidden edge seam. On the top of the shorts I made sure that I traced straight up like it would be if the elastic weren't in there yet. And I also traced up 1-1 1/2 inches to make sure that I would have enough fabric for the elastic that I had. I used 1 inch, non-fraying elastic because I had it already and it's very sturdy, but you could use whatever you wanted or had. I sewed the 2 sides together first and then the crotch seam. Now it's starting to look like shorts! Then I did the leg hems and then the elastic. I measured the elastic to my son and stretched it out a little so it would fit snug. Then I hemmed the waist and strung the elastic through. Then I sewed it into place with a zig-zag hem right down the center of the elastic, stretching the elastic a little to make sure it will be snug. I probably wouldn't have had to sew right on the elastic though because the fabric scrunches up when you put in the elastic because it is shorter than the waist. But I've had so many problems with the elastic getting twisted in things so I decided to sew it into place.

For the tank, I turned the t-shirt inside out and laid it flat on a double layer of fabric, right sides together. Then I traced around the t-shirt, carefully tracing around the arm holes to make it a tank. At the head hole, I traced around the back of the shirt because the back is not as dipped as the front. Making sure to leave enough room for hemming! Then when I cut it out, I cut the front a little more dipped than the back. I traced the neckline up to the top of the neckline edging on the t-shirt because the fabric I used is stretchy so I didn't use that stuff (can't think of what it is called!). The holes were small enough on the arms and head that they wouldn't hem right after I sewed them together, so I had to take out a little stitching before I hemmed them and then sewed them back together making sure I backstitched to hold it in place. I sewed a small area at the top of the back with the ziz-zag stitch with blue on the inside of the shirt and shorts as a tag so that my son would know which way was the back. (Not that it matters sometimes though!!)

They turned out really cute and not too bad for not using a pattern. They fit him and they're cool and hopefully will fit him until it gets cold again (we'll see...)!

Keeping Things Fun!

Jess