Carolyn Pajama Pants and Shorts

 

Hi Guys! I think this might be the last of the unblogged garments that I made in 2017. Whew, finally! (There are some Christmas decorations in the background of these photos because we took them back in December.) I made my first set of Carolyn Pajamas a little over three years ago when I was about a week away from delivering my daughter Caroline, who is making appearances in this post. (See photos of me wearing them pregnant and shortly post-partum, here!) I can’t believe it took me so long to get back to this pattern.

I have been wearing those green polka-dotted pants on repeat since I made them. They have gotten to be quite baggy and also pretty threadbare at the top of the elastic– and the fabric has been washed so may times that the dots are now more yellow than green! I have lots of quilting cotton hanging around in my stash and pulled out some fun navy paisley fabric to make another pair of pants.

Since I made them I’ve been thinking I only went down one size and I was pretty surprised at how slim the fit is on these pants. But looking back on my blog post about my first pair I see that I’d made the largest size pants, which is a 20. These new ones are a size 16, which explains why they seemed quite a bit smaller than the old ones.

I am pretty used to wearing baggy pajama pants so these took a little getting used to. But now that I’ve been wearing them for a couple of months I really like how they aren’t as sloppy as some of my other pajama pants. I love the details on these– the pockets are so handy in the morning when I’m trying to bring sippy cups, my water glass, kids snack bowls, and my phone downstairs from our bedroom to the kitchen. I didn’t have any piping so I opted to skip that detail but I want to add it next time.

 

Immediately after I made the pants I decided to make a pair of shorts using some tencel that I had leftover from this Kalle dress. I lengthened these 2″ (I think) and decided to sew them with a 1/2″ seam allowance instead of a 5/8″ seam allowance. I wanted them to be a little looser than my paisley pants but not a whole size bigger.

I am really happy with how the shorts turned out. They are so comfortable in the tencel and perfect for lounging! It always makes me happy to be able to use my fabric scraps instead of letting them languish in my fabric stash. With some creative cutting I had just the right amount to make these shorts.

Let me also tell you about this t-shirt, which is the Union St tee from Hey June Patterns. I had become a such devoted Lark tee wearer that I hadn’t given much thought to making another t-shirt pattern. After I made this Lane Raglan I decided I should try the Union St tee again, especially since it had gone through an update sometime last year.

I had this cotton/bamboo jersey in my stash that I’d gotten as a remnant from Blackbird fabrics. It is so soft and has just a little more drape than a cotton/spandex jersey. It is also THE PERFECT heather gray color, which seems hard to find sometimes. I made this tee and then basically didn’t take it off for a few weeks. The fit is so nice and I really love the slightly curved hemline. I think I made the neckband a leeeetle bit too short on this one because I’ve got a little pulling in the front by my shoulders, but I fixed that for the next two that I made. (See one of them here.) I am on a major Hey June Patterns kick this year and I think I could almost create a capsule wardrobe with my Union St tees, Lane Raglan, Halifax Hoodie, Tallinn Sweaters, Cheyenne Tunic, and Bryce Cargos. Maybe I should do a post on that soon?!

I’m loving my new pajamas and have some really fun ice cream cone fabric that I plan to use to make a Carolyn top and shorts set sometime this Spring/Summer. Pajamas pants were pretty much my gateway into obsessive sewing and they are still one of my favorite things to make. Do you make your own pajamas?

Thanks for reading!

~Teri