Wanting to use a piece of fabric from deep stash (my Mothers's from the '70's) is great justification for buying more fabric. I have a 4 meter cut of Liberty fabric. It's lovely but in colors that I know if i made a dress, I wouldn't wear it that much. On the other hand it would be perfect for a pair of Carolyn pajamas.
Back in August, on the Jackson Heights Fabric Crawl, one of the items on my wish to find list, was flannel fabric to make a tester pair before I cut into my vintage fabric. At Liz Fabric's I found a plaid in lovely colors. The fabric on the right:
The hand is wonderfully soft, which is terrific for something you are going to sleep in. Unfortunately the print was off. Not just off grain, but it somehow the lines of the plaid actually curve:
While I made a good stab at pattern matching, which worked in some places, see front at the top, I couldn't carry that through the whole garment when i reached a curve patch. And Ididn't have enough fabric to cut the pant cuffs on the bias. In the end I had enough length to just leave them off. But hey, pajamas.
Size wise its a 4 for the neck, shoulders and sleeves graded out to an 8 for the rest and that worked perfectly. For the waistband I used 1" elastic and cut 1/2" off the top and the bottom. I am very happy were they sit just under my waist. Good call on not doing a petite adjustment which I usually need.
On the top, in addition to the grading, I took in the cuffs by 1" and took the sides of the sleeve in to match, starting just under the armhole. Hopefully this nice narrower sleeve will be easier to keep out of the dishwashing.
Only change to make on the next pair, is to either use a slightly narrower cord in the piping (yes I made my own) or leave out the cording and just use a flat piping.
This was my 4th Closet Case Patterns, pattern. I guess I'm officially a fan.
I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of use out of these. I love sewing lingerie/loungewear items as you really get worn. My bathrobe gets worn everyday and I have a unblogged nightgown, that is a floor length Doe and Deer Plantain Tee, that I really enjoy.
Now to get the 2 projects I have waiting to blog about photographed
