Merino Magic

Well, the winter is certainly on our doorstep. Despite the Indian summer we've been enjoying, the temperature has started to drop at night.

Time to think about snuggly winter pyjamas for Mitchell.
Over the last 2 winters, I've made him bodysuits out of fine merino jersey knit, using this Ottobre pattern.
He just lived in them over winter. He wore them at night inside his sleeping bag, and during the day as a base layer.
I always knew he was cosy warm with the fine soft merino next to his skin. And I had great fun mixing and matching exciting colours.

But, the pattern only goes up to size 86 cm. & he's at 92 now. What to do?

I tried looking for a similar pattern in a larger size, but no luck. They were all too lose fitting; I really wanted a bodysuit style - something that fit like thermal underwear!
Finally, I tried one of last year's bodysuits on him, and the fit wasn't too bad in the chest area -- even though his rib cage is larger, he's not as chubby. Of course, it was much too short, but that's easily fixed.
So I hacked the pattern. I added an extra seam allowance to increase the size (NB that worked for this pattern, as the increase in size is consistent across the whole pattern)
I don't really want to have the snaps at the crotch anymore, so I just cut the pattern off at the top of the hip opening, and hemmed it instead of doing a binding.

I've made the first one in a very fine rib merino (on sale at the fabulous Global Fabrics) for $10 a metre. It's a lovely olive green colour (though it's come out as grey in the photos for some reason); and the binding is black merino jersey knit.

Not the most exciting looking sewing in the world, but super practical and useful. I'll be making a whole lot more of these in a more exciting range of colours. I wanted to try the rib first, to see how different it was to jersey when made up (not much, it appears)

Next, I'll be making leggings to match!

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.....