Prosaic sewing, boy's pyjamas, Burda Style 02-2013-146

Not so long ago, I went to a sewing social event, Frocktails, with the Brisbane Spoolettes. I thoroughly enjoyed this evening, despite my usual introvert inclinations, but being recognized by my blog, although highly flattering, was also a bit strange, particularly as the impressions people hold about my life from my blog are not quite what I expected. For instance, apparently in the blogsphere, my offspring are my 2 daughters, who sometimes are only 1 daughter.

 Just for the record, here is my poor sewing neglected son, in one of his favourite photo poses - headlessly unidentifiable. No wonder he has a limited virtual presence.

 These are some of his thrilling new pyjama shorts, made from recycled business shirts. This particular pair are made from a custom shirt I made for my husband (who also may or may not exist in my blog identity, according to my Frocktail sources) The other 2 pairs are mostly composed of fabric sourced from purchased shirts. My husband is very fond of luxurious shirts. One of the shirts was made from gorgeous Italian cotton, far too nice to throw out just because the collars had become shabby, and the other is a boring regulation cotton chambray. I sort of used the trousers pattern from Burda Style 02-2013 (146)

http://image source:www.burdafashion.com/images 

I eliminated the front pockets, the pleats, the darts, the back welt pocket, the fly and made my own waistband, but the crotch curve may still be the same ;)  For the first pair (pictured) I added a draw string to the elastic in the waist, but I was told this was an unecessary detail.

These trousers run to a size 158, which is not terribly common for Burda, smaller boy sizes are much more common. I cut the fronts of the shorts from the sleeves (size 12 boy, size large shirt) and the backs of the shorts from the fronts or back and front of the shirt. There were a few shirt backs left over - these have been used for the waistband of the shorts and also as the lining for a hat. The much washed cotton is beautifully soft for both these purposes.

 Woven cotton sleepwear is far superior to any knit things or poly wovens you can buy for the subtropics. Sewing is so useful. That was my mantra. I had to keep telling myself how thrifty and useful I was being the whole time I sewed these.

My son, despite his overall lack of interest in clothing other than for practical purposes, is quite particular about how his clothing feels. I have used flat felled seams throughout the main part of the shorts, and enclosed all other seams. Hopefully this will give the pyjamas frequent use and some longevity. You may notice that they are perhaps a tad large, this is also for longevity. I have heard that growing out of all their clothes overnight is an issue with 12 year old boys

Making pyjamas should give me a very good excuse for some sewing frivolity, but not just yet. I am in deadline December, despite telling myself I would not sew any presents for Christmas this year. Apparently my nieces feel that I have to live up to my reputation as the sewing Auntie!

Burda Style 02-2012-106 Fan Dance Coat, or how to de glamourize a pattern for household use

I am often amused by Burda Style magazine. I was particularly taken with the Asian Inspiration section in the February issue, especially the suggestion that "The elegant coat of silk satin print will accompany you to the theatre"
This is lovely, but personally, should I observe someone wearing such a garment to the theatre, I would strongly suspect that they wanted an early night, and felt that going out in their dressing gown would save them a few minutes at the end of the evening.

Having a certain reluctance to use silk satin for a first time pattern exploration, I trialled this pattern using some extremely loud and large print quilting cotton that a friend bought for me whilst she was in Japan. This should help to wake me up each morning.

It is rather windy today, so the photograph makes the garment look a little skewed.
I have used two colourways of the same print, not having sufficient of either, to make the dressing gown, but it is hard to see this combination of fabrics due to the stunning nature of the print.

Although this is a very simple pattern, at first glance not unlike the New Look pattern I have been using for the past 10 years or so for family dressing gowns, it has some very nice details.

The all in one front and collar is shaped with a long dart, which sits very nicely around the neck, and the sleeves have a very pleasant bell shape, which somehow escapes being too large and impractical for important tasks such as tea drinking.

The Burda directions are not too bad, except where they instruct you to baste the collar then sew from the right side. Instead of doing this, I clipped the inner dart to the seam line, then hand stitched the collar to the neck and shoulders.

Photograph of clipping at dart prior to hand stitching

I added flat piping to the collar/facing seam, and added a inner tie at waist level. My belt is wider than Burda's, and I tapered out the side and back seams below the waist, as I am not shaped in the least like a kimono. I probably did not need to do this, as the smallest size 36-38 has generous ease. I made a square shoulder adjustment, but no further fitting alterations.
I flat felled the centre back seam, and bound the other seams with bias binding, having just read the Colette sewing book and being inspired to make things nicely.

Do I need a pretty silk-satin dressing gown as well?