Wolf on Spring Break

Today, I am part of the Spring Break PJ blog tour. During this tour 30 bloggers will treat you on a wide selection of PJ's, the perfect clothes to wear during a relaxed break. There are two types of give aways connected to the tour. There is a daily give away, so one winner per day and there is an overall huge give away. Look at the end of the post for more details on the give away. I did not need much time to finalize my pattern plans for the tour, this was the perfect occasion to finally sew a Wolf! The pattern by Zonen09 that I immediately bought at release, but in contrary to its brother, had not been used yet.
  

Over the months I have seen several very nice versions of this pattern, these two boys and these two girls, and this one look amazing. My kids are very much into PJ onesies, this one and this one are still in heavy rotation and my eldest felt left out. It was clear she was the one to receive the (first) Wolf.

The official Wolf instructions explain a snap-closing front. I am a huge fan of snaps, but I wanted these PJ's to have a zipper. When I made the earlier onesies, I struggled to come up with a clean finish for the zipper. I did not want the edge of the zipper exposed on the inside. For this PJ I put the zipper between two jersey layers, so like with a lined garment, and both jersey layers are connected to the main green fabric. This gives the advantage of a lined garment without having to use a crazy amount of fabric. I should have made a picture to show you the inside, but I forgot. I have a lot of pictures as it is, so maybe it is for the best. What I did is super easy, but if you do not get it, just ask.

My daughter was a bit sad when she saw that the pattern does not have "socks". That is somehow a onesie characteristic that my kids love. I already had to patch the feet of both onesies I made, the feet are apparently the weak link in such garment, so I totally understand why sock-less is more practical. As an alternative, I just sewed her matching socks (after the success of these), fortunately she was very satisfied with this solution.

I am very satisfied with the fit. I am a measurement-table follower, and the size I picked based on the table gives a perfect skinny fit. Zonen09 has the nice feature to come in standard and skinny sizes. My daughter is a bit skinnier than the skinny fit though, so I still needed to blend sizes a bit.

The fabric is the spring version from this fabric. I bought it at Joyfits a long time ago. I bought one meter and that turned out to be just a bit too short. I therefore opted for slightly taller ankle cuffs. I determined the length after fitting the onesie on my daughter. With hindsight I should have made them a tad taller though.

I love the piping, shoulder and pocket details. The piping is super easy because it is between two straight lines, no curves, making it possible to sew the piping with my serger. The pocket is rather narrow, but my daughter claims that she managed to stuff her bunny in it, so apparently it is not too small for her.

I made the cape with two woven fabrics. One is from Soft Cactus, the other from an unknown designer. Between the two layers I sandwiched a thin batting layer, to create volume and warmth. I wanted the cape to be wearable without the PJ as well and I therefore chose a front closure for the cape. My daughter does not like the cape in front of her neck though, so she closes the snaps in her neck. Again no detail picture, but I think it is a great solution, no threat of suffocation this way, just the way the pattern intended.

There are 24 shops sponsoring prizes for this tour!

Along with today’s giveaway (see below!) there is also larger giveaway and a link up happening. Go to today’s overview post at Sprouting JubeJube to get the full details on how to link up and to enter the giveaway! We are also lucky to have four fabric shops offering readers discount codes:

 

Mabel Madison is offering 20% off with the code JAMMIES. Code expires March 31st! PhatQuarters is offering 10% off OR FREE shipping to US addresses on orders over 40$ US (with an equivalent discount for international shoppers). Use the code PHAT10 for 10% off OR FREE40 for free shipping to US. Raspberry Creek Fabrics is offering 15% off with the code PJPARTYTOUR. Good through March 26th! Tangled Blossoms Designs is offering 10% off with the code PJPARTY. Code expires March 25th!

And now for today’s giveaway!

Today’s prize is sponsored by The Handmaiden’s Cottage. You could win 2 patterns of your choice! Visit The Handmaiden’s Cottage to see what they have to offer. The giveaway ends March 22nd at 11:59pm. See the Rafflecopter on how to enter! You have up to 7 chances to win! The winner will be chosen March 23rd and will have 48 hours to respond to the email before a new winner is chosen.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook.

Want to win more prizes? Visit Create 3.5 tomorrow to see what new prizes will be up for grabs as well as see the previews for tomorrow’s bloggers.

Missed a stop on the tour? The full schedule is below:

Monday, March 21st

Sew Far North | The Wholesome Mama | From-a-Box | Pattern Revolution | Inspinration | Paisley Roots

Tuesday, March 22nd

Sprouting JubeJube | 5 Out Of 4 | Sew Happily Ever After | Beri Bee Designs | Phat Quarters | Connected by A Thread

Wednesday, March 23rd

Create 3.5 | Handmade Boy | HattieLu Handmade | Made by Melli | The Crafting Fiend | Sweeter Than Cupcakes

Thursday, March 24th

Lulu & Celeste | Sew Starly | Phat Quarters | Pear Berry Lane | Rebel & Malice | Creative Counselor

Friday, March 25th

Made By Jaime | Mae & K | Mabel Madison | SewSophiLynn | Amazing Adventures of Bubba & Bug | MahlicaDesigns

BIllie PJ's

Although I also bought Wolf, the PJ pattern from Zonen09, today, I am showing you a Billie PJ. I made this one over a month ago, but didn't came around to make pictures. When I was shooting a test garment (about which I am not allowed to tell you anything yet) on my youngest, my middle daughter photo bomded the shoot in her Billie PJ's. She was very in the mood for pictures, so prepare for silly faces and strange poses.

This PJ was sewn quickly after this, this and this one, all a matter of using a cut pattern to its fullest. I originally planned on making a dress, but I was overestimating my daughters length (because she is growing out of all her dresses with an incredible speed) and ended up with a too long garment. The length was perfect for PJ's though, and seeing that she loves to wear PJ's anyway, this one will get a good amount of wear for sure.

 Another reason why the dress turned PJ was because I wasn't satisfied with my finishing level. The first problem was that I cut the extended wrist cuffs too short (I wanted to try something else), so I sewed the two pieces together (to make one big one) and cut another big one. I ended up sewing the cuff inside out on the arm though, that is why the seam is showing, and I was not in the mood to take it off again (I was convincing myself it doesn't really show, but I was kidding myself). I hemmed the dress by just sewing a doubled piece of jersey on the bottom. Trying out something new, but even after I did an extra line of stitching, the bottom has the tendency to curl upwards.

I bought the fabric at Joyfits for just 11 euro's (a bargain for an entire meter of organic fabric). The fabric is out of stock now, but check out this section of the site for other bargains. Also the contrasting light blue is from Joyfits.

So, not a very successful garment, but I love the pictures though! I gifted myself a background and I love it, it is just plain white, but I feel it makes my inside pictures much more professional looking. Let's end with a true sneak peek of the garment I am testing, it is going to be great!

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).

Mara pyjama

Like I mentioned in January, instead of making up my own (sewing) resolutions I simply joined the new year's plans of others. Sew Your Pattern Stash is one of those projects and the perfect type of resolution. Unfortunately I did find anybody with an innovative idea for sewing fabric stash. Maybe I should come up with something next year.

This months Sew Your Pattern Stash theme is accessories and pyjamas. I am not the accessories type so pyjamas it is (I just realized my previous post totally falls in the accessories category and I did own the pattern in 2014, so I again have a double entry this month).

A year ago I bought a very soft double gauze at modes4u which my middle daughter immediately loved. The fabric is so soft and she loved the little sheep. I immediately saw a night gown in it, but I did not find a  pattern that really spoke to me. I wanted a night gown that would not need buttons or a zipper (but the double gauze is not really stretchy) and considered making a peasant dress version but in the end I decided to use my Mara pattern (after seeing a great Mara pyjama here).

The Mara is an adorable blouse pattern that I had been eying for a year already but finally bought in combination with the Charles. To create easy entry I made the yoke from knit. I used a T-shirt from my husband for the yoke because I realized I do not own any white jersey. I feared that plain white jersey would have become a bit boring and I decided to use my textile marker once again. Some of the sheep on the fabric have curls and I used a similar pattern for the yoke. While drawing I realized the textile marker is too thick. It was impossible to make sharp lines. The tip of the marker always drew a bit on the side as well. It seems I need to buy a thinner one.

I cut the yoke as one piece and therefore made the pattern piece less wide. I lengthened the pattern to have dress length and flared the bottom out. For my three and a half year old I had to cut a size one year old so I also had to lengthen the sleeves. I opted for a bit tighter sleeve bottoms.

Still trying to master the plush animal on shoulder look.

The whole thing sewed up quickly.  The neckline was the only issue. I could not decide on the optimal finish. The neckline consists of both woven and knit fabric. I did not want a full lining (too much fabric needed) I did not wanted a partial lining (this would give an ending piece somewhere on the inside of a pyjama) and a partial woven partial jersey bias also did not make it to the top of my list. In the end I just opted for a quick solution, keeping in mind that it is "just" a pyjama. I first serged the whole neckline, than folded and stitched in place with a small zigzag. This resulted in a slightly waving neckline even after I steamed the hell out it.  A few washes hopefully do the trick.

The photo's were taken in our back yard. I turned the garden table into a bed and both my son and daughter loved it (my daughter really wanted a lot of "fake sleep" photos). My son even photo bombed the shoot as you can see in the back ground.

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).