My New Obsession: Sewing Clothes

I haven't done much of it, except for a few skirts here and there, because I'm not that good at it.  I just am not precise or careful enough when sewing pattern pieces together to make them look or fit right.  And yet sewing my own clothes seems like something I really should be doing, given how hard it can be to find something off-the-rack that fits me right, and how picky I am about colors.

Sew Fearless, however, has inspired me.  She recently did a few posts on a Simplicity pajama pattern that looked so easy and fun I had to try it.  One pattern piece, two pieces of fabric, three seams? Surely even I can do that.

And I did:

To make the project as least-risky as possible, I bought sale fabric and made the shorts, not the pants (appropriate to the season, too).  I made the waistband a little too loose, but that's hardly a problem for pjs.

I also tried something I've been meaning to for a while, which was to make a permanent pattern rather than cutting up the tissue pattern pieces.  Using a material akin to interfacing has several advantages: it's a lot sturdier than tissue paper, it is easier to pin, it smoothes out better on the fabric, and it gives me the flexibility to adjust pattern pieces without destroying the originals.  In this case, I traced the pattern for the shorts onto the interfacing with some fit adjustments and cut that out, rather than cutting the tissue, which would have cut off the legs of the pattern for the pants.

I'm already planning another pajama bottom, this time the pants.  A local quilt store is closing, so I picked up a great remnant for a song.  I am also now ambitious enough to try to make a sun hat.