Half slips and Kwik Sew 3155 : Hoodie Pajamas

Last week was mostly taken up with boring useful sewing. I started by drafting a pattern for, and sewed myself three half slips (well actually four but the first ended up in my donations bag since it was way too big.) I used this tutorial: Gertie's Half Slip Tutorial which was great. Just don't add any ease (she calls for adding 3" to the hip measurement before halving it) if you're using a knit fabric and you'll be fine. All the materials for my half slips came from Sew Sassy including the nylon tricot, picot elastic for the waist, and stretch lace trim for the hem. Black half slips are pretty easy to find in the stores around here but not in the length I wanted (always too short or too long. Now I have some in the exact 26" length that I wanted (three inches less than the 29" I tend to wear my "shorter" skirts at). No pictures because I found it impossible to get a decent picture of black half slip. I think I could draw a better picture in Paint.

Something like this LOL:

Next I sewed up a pair of pajamas for myself using my TNT Kwik Sew 3155. Unfortunately it seems to be out of print now. I don't even know how many times I have sewed this one up in the past decade. All I can say is I have many different sizes traced with different alterations including one for maternity, another for post baby, and another in a size I would need to lose close to 20 pounds to fit into. I sewed this up again recently when I started sewing for myself again but decided I needed another since it seemed I was wearing that one almost every night, washing it in the daytime so I could wear it again at night straight out of the dryer. There's nothing like super comfy pajamas :-) I like my pj pants with lots of ease, so I always cut them about a size larger than my measurements.

The pattern with a swatch of the fabric I chose for the top (sitting on top of the bag full of this pattern traced in various sizes)

 

 

For the hoodie I used a soft rayon/lycra jersey knit I bought from fabric.com in November. For the pants I used some black cotton french terry I had lying around for who knows how long. I *may* have bought it from Wazoodle years and years ago. I had just exactly enough. It was so close that I laid out the fabric flat on the floor and traced the pattern pieces onto it first. I wanted to be sure I wasn't going to be off by one inch. Only then did I transfer it to my cutting table and begin cutting.  All I have left now are tiny scraps for my kids to turn into doll clothes, school projects (and who knows what else they do with the fabric scraps I save for them)

 

I've made this one so many times that I don't look at the instructions anymore but when I sewed it the first few times I followed them and they were very good, as Kwik Sew instructions always were. (I have no idea how they are now as my Kwik Sew pattern stash was acquired before Kwik Sew became part of McCall Pattern Company.)

 

There are a few changes I always make when I sew up this one. Firstly I leave the drawstring off of the pants. I did sew it the first time, but since then I don't bother.

 

 I also self line the hood. To do this I cut four hood pieces, instead of two. Sew and press the back seam in each set. Then sew them together right sides together around the top and front edges only leaving the bottom free. Turn right side out, press, topstich at 1/4" around the top and front edges. Line up the bottom edge and machine baste them together. Sometimes if I'm in the mood I then carefully line up the back hood seams and "stitch in the ditch" along the seamline, but not always. I then treat the lined hood the same way I would an unlined one and sew it to the neck edge. It doesn't go all the way to the front edges anymore since the hem allowance of the hood is no longer there (because it is used up in the seam when the two hoods were sewn to each other). After sewing in the hood I simply press in the v-neck edge of the top, secure with Design Plus double sided fusible tape, and then topstitch at 1/4", meeting the topstitching of the hood at the top of the 'v'.

 

Everything else is sewn pretty much as in the instructions. I coverstitch the hems but before I had my coverstitch machine I used a twin needle. (The very first time I don't think I had any double needles yet so I zigzagged the hems and it worked fine too)

 

 

The picture isn't super. I can't get the pants onto my dressform so they are hanging from the top of the closet door on a bit of an angle which makes them look wonky.