Saturday, December 24, 2011

Chemises and Pantaloons

New pajamas are the customary Christmas Eve gift at our house. Usually it's something store-bought, but I found this pattern and just couldn't not make them.



Chemises and pantaloons in the style of late 1800's pioneers.



The construction is genius, with a drawstring neckband that grows with them and plenty of extra length and width. The pantaloons have three extra pleats sewn in - just let out a pleat, and you get an extra two inches. I sewed in an extra four inches of waistband in each pair, so that I can let out the waist as needed. I imagine these will be worn out long before they're outgrown!



I figured I'd be more excited about the final product than the girls were, but they actually seemed really pleased, especially when I explained the history behind them.


Sewing notes: This pattern was super easy. Total was two hours for each gown/pant set if sewn on the electric. Since my electric spazzed halfway through the first set, much of the sewing was done on the Singer treadle, which nearly doubled the sewing time. After the first set, I changed a bit on the construction of the pantaloon ruffles, just for the sake of my own sanity. Flannel maybe wasn't the easiest fabric to work with, but it worked well enough.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

'Gotta love antique common sense-- somebody knew what it was to have growing babies... now, if we could only get quality fabric in modern stores that would last as long as the clothes that grow with the children!!!

Wendy said...

adorable!