Birthday Girl Pajamas

M’s 2^nd birthday was last night and of course I had big plans of several things to make for her.  Her birthday outfit was finished during KCWC so I was set for that but I could not decide on what else to make for her.  She has plenty of hand me downs from A but I still wanted to make her something special that she would also get some use from.  So, I decided to make her a pajama set for the summer. 

The blue and white striped flannel was something my Mom brought me during her last visit and was from her stash of fabric, and I picked up the butterfly flannel on sale from Joann Fabrics.  Both fabrics were washed and dried prior to cutting so hopefully most of the shrinking has already happened.  The only reason I mention this is because I once had a pair of flannel PJ shorts for A that seemed to shrink every time I washed them.  They went from being too big to too small in about a month’s time and it was not because she was growing.  I also learned my lesson about drying flannel in the dryer and after the initial was I plan on drying them on the line. 

So, back to the pajamas.  I used a pants pattern that I already had traced off and just shortened it.  I put the shorts together like normal except I left the bottom hem unfinished.  For the bottom ruffle I just cut a strip of the butterfly flannel 3” wide, folded it in half and then gathered it up.  Once it was gathered I sewed it on to the bottom of the shorts, serged the hem to clean it up and then just top stitched it.  For the top I knew that it had to be something sleeveless because of the hot weather here.  I wanted to do something similar to a pillowcase dress but did not want to worry about a tie coming undone.  I decided to do a twist on the pillowcase style top and put elastic in the casing of the body and just measured some straps for each side.  The ruffle on the top was put on the same way as the shorts except I used two pieces that were 3” wide and just sewed a rolled hem on the bottom edge for a longer ruffle.

These were so easy to whip up that I decided to sew a pair for A as well.  I made them both a little big so hopefully they will last for the whole summer!  **These pictures are of A modeling the new pjs.  M was wiped out after her birthday celebration and crashed after opening presents.

Cheers,

Erin