A Very Merry Homemade Christmas:Pajamas

Every year as a child we were allowed to open one gift from under the tree on Christmas eve and that gift was always new pajamas. I don't know how the tradition was started but apparently it is a very common one. I tip my hat to the person who came up with the idea because I personally think there is something so great about new, warm pjs when you go to bed on a magical night like Christmas eve.

This year I made the girls pajamas to wrap and put under the tree. Pajama pants are a fairly easy project and inexpensive too!

Materials

1 yard snugly soft fabric (this made 1 pair 3T and 1 pair 12 month)
Elastic (1" thick)
Thread

Directions

To start I used a pair of well fitting pants, folded with legs together, as my template. Fold your fabric so that right sides are together the width of the widest part of your pants plus 1/2".  Lay pants on top of fabric with the front of the pants touching the fold of the fabric. Using a fabric pencil trace the back edge of the pants leaving a 1/2" allowance on the side, 2" at the bottom, and a 3" at the top. Cut through both layers of fabric, this will be your first pant leg.

Leaving the pant leg folded, sit it aside and reposition the remaining fabric so that it looks as it did when you began, with it folded onto itself the width of your pant leg. Place your first pant leg on top of the fabric and trace around it and cut.

Take one pant leg and sew the length of the leg to the crotch using a 1/4" seam allowance. (With the extra fabric at the top it may be easy to confuse the top with the leg so it may be helpful to mark one or the other.) To keep stray threads from tickling tiny legs sew the same seam using an overcasting stitch. Repeat with the second pant leg.

Now you're ready to hem the pants. I left a 1" allowance at the bottom to give me a 1/2" hem. Turn the bottom of the fabric up 1/2" and press. Fold again and press (you may want to pin at this point, however I find that pressing holds the fabric in place well enough.) Sew along the bottom edge of your pants using a 1/4" seam allowance. Repeat with second pant leg.

The next step is sewing the legs together. Turning one pant leg right side out, place it inside of the other pant leg and line up the raw edges. This should create a U shape. Starting at the center,where all the pieces/seams meet up, pin together. Sew along the U shape using a 1/4" seam allowance. Follow the seam using an overcast stitch. Pull the inside pant leg back out, making sure the pants are still inside out.

Now we can sew the waist band. I left a 3" allowance at the top giving me a 1 1/2" waistband. (I wanted enough room for my 1" elastic to slide in.) Like with the pants, begin by folding the fabric over 1 1/2" and press. Fold again and press. Sew along the bottom edge of the fold using a 1/8" seam allowance, leaving a 2" gap at the back seam.

Cut the elastic to size (you can find many different ways of determining the correct size, the way I did it was flat the pants out flat and measure across one and a half times) and using a safety pin attached to one end feed it through the pocket you made. Once all the way through pull until it overlaps the start by 1" and sew the two pieces together. Fold the gap closed and sew closed.

I may embellish the pink shirts I got to go along with these and if I come up with something good I'll share!

Updated 12/20/2012

I tried my hand at some embroidering and added the tree and moose to the plain pink shirts I bought. What do you think?