The Cursed Pyjama Project

Sometimes it seems that a particular sewing project is cursed. No matter what you try it all goes wrong somehow.
I feel that way about Mitchell's pymajas -- and I've only done the top half!

I'd been given a lovely soft cotton jersey in a very fine navy & white stripe. Nice to sleep in, and Mitchell had grown out of all his pyjamas.

I really liked the envelope necks that he'd had with his onesies, and wanted to use that design feature, rather than having fasteners -- much more comfortable.

I found an Ottobre pattern that I thought would do nicely (No.5 from 1/2009). It was a jersey tunic (which suited the fabric) and had an envelope neck.
I didn't have any ribbing to hand, so decided to use the cotton jersey as self binding. First big mistake. This had worked well on previous projects made out of merino jersey, but the cotton fabric didn't have a great spring back when it was stretched. Using the same fabric for the binding, resulted in stretched out seams.

The first one I made for Mitchell ended up huge: the envelope neck didn't have enough elasticity to stay in place, and constantly slipped off his shoulders; the sleeves were about 4 inches too long, and were very baggy. Every time it was washed, it seemed to get bigger. After stitching on some extra elastic around the neckline, which looked dreadful; I reluctantly consigned it to the rag bag.

I'd begun the second top, before I realised the major problems with the first one; and the self-binding on the envelope neck was already in place. I re-cut the sleeves to a much narrower and shorter pattern. But what to do about the neckline?

I decided to stitch in the ditch along the envelope overlap. Retaining the effect, while actually making it a much narrower opening. We'll have to see if it works.

In the interim, it seems that everything that could go wrong with the process, did. I stitched the binding onto the wrong side of the sleeves, (rather than unpicking, I turned it onto the right side & re-stitched -- it looks OK, but is a bit thicker).
I ran out of thread in stitching the seams, and broke the overlocker thread, 3 separate times!

Finally, I decided that I couldn't be bothered binding the bottom, so just overlocked and stitched it up (breaking a needle on a pin in the process.). It looks a bit puckered where the stitching has stretched the fabric, but I guess Mitchell and I can live with that.

I think it's back to the drawing board with this fabric. I'll need a pattern that's a much slimmer fit, and stretchy rib knit for the bindings.

In the meantime, Mitchell is sleeping in t-shirts.....