Pyjama Party and a fabric story

Those of us who like to collect fabric have a problem. What happens to the fabric that we don't use?
I have, through some miracle of self control previously unattainable to myself, sewn up more fabric in the past 3 years than I have purchased. I don't know how I managed this. Maybe I will sew up my entire stash! (I can see you laughing).

This week, in fact, I sewed from someone else's stash. I am so virtuous. Maybe not. This fabric has been lurking in my stash,  for about 4 years. It was masquerading as a sheet that was purchased by my husband's aunt's mother-in-law in the '50s. (How is that for a sentence?)  Hmm, that makes the fabric somewhere between 60 and 70 years old - and the 4 years in my stash makes it my aging fabric.....

I used most of the other never-used sheet/fabric from this set here. It's beautifully high quality fabric, 180 count cotton, with the sheet I already used having a pattern of full blown roses, and the more recently used sheet a pretty rosebud print, with a border effect of larger roses towards one edge. The dress I made for my daughter has held up to wash and wear very well, so I hope that the age of the fabric does not affect the usefulness of my latest project. I'm not using any of my elderly fabric for complicated projects, as I don't completely trust it, but as far as I can tell, there is no easy answer to the question regarding longevity of any particular piece of fabric.

Very serious article about fabric longevity

The sheet is now 6 sets of pyjama shorts, one set for the only great-grand-daughter of the original purchaser (my children's second cousin), and another 5 sets for my daughters and their first cousins on that side of the family. Burda Style 11-2009-132 (adult sizes) and Burda Style 11-2009-143 (children's sizes) are the patterns. I scaled up a size for the children's shorts, as the pattern is for knits.
The sizes for small children have simply elasticated waists, and the older girls have a drawstring with elastic.

I hope that my nearly-a-relative would be pleased with my use of her almost fabric. I know that I would be pleased if my sadly unused stash turned into an entertaining sewing project.

The other 4 sets of shorts are girly quilting fabric, about 10 years old, and manly red-white- and blue seersucker, about 7 years old, for respectively my sister's daughters and my son, who is rather outnumbered in the  cousin gender distribution but still needs Christmas pyjamas. His pattern is Kwik Sew 2022.  Apparently this is a vintage pattern. I got mine in an op shop rather a long time ago, and it is one of my most- used patterns.

A notch up in the pyjama production party line is a set I've made for my sister.

 

 The pyjamas are sketchily associated with my self drafted trouser pattern  and the top is from the same useful Burda issue 11-2009, this time pattern number 134. I've modified this pattern over the years and it now has more drawstrings and less elastic. In fact all the drawstrings in this post have approximately half of the waist measurement in elastic attached to either grograin ribbon or bias rouleaux tubes. I was quite pleased with this set until I made myself a new nightie (on your right).

 

This is the same fabric as the main print in my sister's set and I like the nightie better than the pyjama top, as the contrasting trim on the trousers looks good, but on the top it seems a bit much in comparison to the nightie.  I would redo it, but the darned thing is in the clutches of Australia Post already.
The other nightie in the photo started out as a petticoat for a dress that turned out a little too transparent (its a bias slip with FBA and therefore bust darts) but unfortunately the hand woven fabric is too rough for a petticoat. It catches on the overlying dress. I'll have to make another one in something more slippery.
There, done and wrapped, and posted where appropriate, and a full week before Christmas. I'm feeling smug.