New Look 6641 Pajamas

Pattern: New Look 6641--Pajamas

Last Thursday, I finally got started sewing the kids the pajamas that I've been saying I would make them all summer! Originally, I was going to make short-sleeved PJs with shorts, but I think it's a little too late for shorts, so I decided to go for pants.

This all started when a friend asked me to make her a bag using some fun fabric from SewBaby.com. Once the fabric arrived, I knew that the knit fabric wouldn't work at all for a bag, so I decided to use it for some pajamas for DD. (The friend did get her bag in a different fabric!) I determined that I wouldn't have enough fabric to make both a top and pants, so I decided to make the top and I ordered a solid knit for the pants.

On to the review:

This pattern is for kids' pajamas. It's a multi-size pattern--sizes 3-8. It features a nighty, short-sleeved & long-sleeved shirts, pants, and shorts. There are cuff and hem options--regular or lettuce edge--as well as puffy or flat sleeve options. This pattern is sized for stretch knits only for the shirts and a variety of fabrics for the bottoms.

After measuring the kids, I determined they both needed size 5. (I'm sure DD will need her pants shortened.) I traced the pattern so I can use the other sizes for future pajamas. So far, I have made view D--the puff-short-sleeved top with lettuce edges.

This top should've been super-easy and in many ways it was. Cutting it out with the rotary cutter was super-fast. It also has only 5 pieces, so it's not a complicated construction. However, since I'm pretty new to sewing with knit fabrics, this top also gave me some problems.

The instructions were thorough and made sense for the most part. One thing I did not like, however, was sewing the elastic in the sleeves directly to the fabric. It was VERY difficult to do! In the future, I will probably make a casing, then thread the elastic through the casing. I think it would be more comfortable that way as well.

Now, onto the sewing errors and problems I had. These are totally and completely MY fault, by the way, not an issue with the pattern:

I had issues sewing the neck band to the top. This was the first time that I have done this, so while it's not perfect, I did pretty well if I do say so myself! If you don't sew, here's what you have to do: You have to stretch the neck band AS YOU SEW it to the neck edge of the top! It's a weird process. I did this on the serger, so when I discovered a pleat in the back of the shirt underneath the neckband, I decided to just leave it since I had no seam allowance left to work with. It's not a big deal since this is just a pajama top for DD.

I also did the lettuce edging on the sleeves and hem. This process gave me some problems as well. For you non-sewers, you can make a lettuce (ruffly) edge on the edges of the sleeves and the bottom of the shirt by using the rolled hem feature on a serger. You stretch the fabric as it goes through the machine so it leaves a cute lettuce edge. This is a pretty simple thing to do, but you have to understand that I'm new to using the serger! It's such a finicky machine! If it's not threaded EXACTLY correctly (and it's difficult to tell without unthreading and starting all over), it will NOT sew correctly! So, it took me a while to get everything set up and threaded correctly. Then, while lettuce edging one of the sleeves, there was trouble. I don't know exactly what happened, but part of the edge didn't come out right, so I had to cut *another* sleeve and do it again. Later, I had BIG problems with being able to tell how much fabric the blade was cutting off while I was lettuce edging the bottom of the shirt. I finally cut off the messed up parts and did the lettuce edging without using the blade. MUCH BETTER! Luckily, the pattern had a huge hem allowance and the shirt ended up just the right length for DD.

While I'm not super-happy with this top, it turned out OK. It was good practice sewing with knits and with the serger. I am not sure that I'll make this top for DD again, but we'll see. I will make her PJ pants next when the fabric arrives. I ordered a camouflage knit to makes DS's PJs and he's very excited. I'll blog about those items as I get them done.

Let me know what you think!