Pyjamas for Lucas and a shirt for Jan.

My fabric cupboard is full. It's not a very big cupboard, but I don't want to collect heaps and heaps of fabric that I do nothing with, except move it around when I'm cleaning out my sewing cupboard. So I decided to do some sewing with leftovers from other projects, and with fabric I bought because it's pretty, but with no specific project in mind. Last weekend Willem and I had some unexpected free time, as all our kids stayed at my parents for two nights, so I took to the sewing machine and finished two projects!

I only have this picture of the PJ's, because I hurried to have them finished for Sunday night.

 Lucas got to stay up a little later than usual while I cursed my double needle trying to get the hems on his shirt and trousers done. He was very happy with the finished item. This is probably his first new pyjamas, he only has hand me downs from his older brother and sister. I've been saying for months that the kid only has rags to sleep in and desperately needs some new stuff, but somehow never got round to it. I still have a fear of sewing with knits, ever since I spend hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, before someone told me you need special machine needles to sew knits. I was sewing with cheap cotton thread and a blunt regular needle, you can imagine the mess! But still, whenever I get started on them, I see images of skipped stitches, knotted thread and fabric being pulled into my machine floating in my mind's eye, and I'm always surprised when I manage to sew a whole seam without any trouble. I now like that you don't have to finish the seams, because they don't fray anyway, but as you can see on the collar (a bit puckered in the front, too loose at the back), I still have some learning to do where knits are concerned. Next time I sew this, I'll have to remember not to try and stretch the collar band evenly all around, but to give more in front, and stretch it more in the back. But on the PJs it doesn't bother me enough to redo it. Plus, I don't have a lot of fabric left and I want to make another PJ, for Jan. Maybe if I have some orange fabric left after that, I'll cut out the collar and replace it with a slightly wider, better executed version. I also keep having trouble with the double needle for the seams: skipped stitches and breaking thread, I don't know why.

It took me 15 minutes to fold this nicely, and I'm not unfolding it for the pictures!

Neat button holes. I'm over my fear of them, but can't help the little puckers I get at the ends...

Collar point and little ants in little tunnels.

My pretty label makes the whole thing look very professional, I think.

I also made this shirt for my godson, Jan. I made another shirt like this for Toon last year, but for this one I used a collar with stand, which I drafted for Felix's konijntjes-hemd (rabbit-shirt). I did want to make it a winter shirt, but I ran out of fabric, so it has short sleeves. I think the colours will go well with Jan's eyes. I hope he likes it. It's nice to make 3 shirts from the same pattern. It's much quicker when you don't have to trace the pattern anymore, or refer to instructions when sewing.