Wednesday, November 25, 2009

PJs for my son

Burda WOF 11-2009-134While I'm trying to find a solution for the blog formatting -- I can't even say how much I hate bugs like these -- here's another actual sewing blog post: With PJs for my son. He loves them. I made two pairs.

Pattern: Burda World of Fashion Magazine: 11-2009-134 (Pyjamas) 

Pattern Sizing:
burda children's sizes 104 - 128
I cut a size 110 for my 116cm tall five-year-old boy - and the size is perfect!
It fits really well, with a tiny bit of growing room built in, so he can grow taller.

I made two pairs, the brown pair is actually more matchy-matchy with the ribbing matched to the solid-color jersey, and I like that less.

The fit is very large, also the neck opening is a bit larger than what I anticipated from the photo from the magazine, but it's ok.
Burda WOF 11-2009-134 (2)
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
yes.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
yes, very.

Actually, as I cut, I prepared the pieces directly for sewing, pinned the seams together. So I came up with a slightly different order from the BWOF instructions, but used all the instructions from Burda. This is a method from the Palmer/Pletsch books (Painless Sewing and others), where you prepare all the seams you can, sew them all in one go, and then do all the pressing in one go, prepare the next batch of seams, and so on. Worked like a charm to speed up my sewing.

Of course, for this to work, I needed to read the whole instructions set beforehand, decide which ones I wanted to leave out (eyelets) -- and I actually wrote down the order I wanted to follow. I guess this is just another time where prep work really speeds up the process, even though it takes time to do.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I really like the wide pyjama legs: My son says they are just like his judo kimono pants, and he loves them.

I absolutely love the twin-needle top-stitching on the pyjama top: all the ribbing is first attached, and then top-stitched, also there is top-stitching at the sleeve-to-top-seam. And it makes for such a finished, RTW look. Love it. And it's sooooo easy to do.

No dislikes.

Fabric Used:
Cotton jersey, from Hilco, bought at Tipp-Tapp Stoffe in Germany. Love the quality of this fabric!

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I left off the applique, and I used bright colors and stripes instead of the grey they used.
Oh, also, I left off the pretend drawstring with the metal eyelets at the front of the pants.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I'm already sewing a second pair. And I think I will definitely continue to sew from this pattern, probably using a bigger size next time, once he's outgrown these two pairs.
Highly recommend the pattern to others: so easy and quick and you can have so much fun using color and prints.

Conclusion:
Love the pattern. My son loves his new pyjamas. Love all around.

2 comments:

Faye Lewis said...

They look so professional. You did a great job and your topstitching is so straight.

Sigrid said...

Cute and they are so well made.

Could it be that the website counter is giving a problem with the size of letters in IE? I looked at the code and see there is an instruction font=1. Not sure, I'm no expert (and this code is the code I get when I rightclick on your page and choose "view code"). Worth a try to remove that gadget.