pajama pants

My mom and I are always sharing inspiration with each other. This past week, she sent me a link to the wonderful Jane's Apron blog. The little girl wide-leg lounge pants immediately caught my eye. So adorable! Julie's were inspired by the wide-leg lounge pants in Amy Butler's InStitches. I don't have this book so I looked through my vintage craft books to see if I could find some wide leg pants that would work just as well. I started with my absolute favorite set of books, Make It Yourself. There are 20 books in the set. Each one has projects relating to knitting, crochet, sewing (mostly clothing), and something fun in the last chapter like embroidery or crafts. The link above has listings on amazon for the complete set for $185. This is quite pricey - I gathered almost the whole set at Goodwill for between 99 cents to $1.99 each. (Note: Make sure the volumes you pick up each have the pattern sheets included). The wide leg pants I made came from volume 15, pages 1880-1881. Directions were very limited (only a few sentences) so you should have some sewing experience. The pattern also needs to be enlarged on your own by following their diagram. Since I was making the pajama pants for myself rather than a child, I used a vintage floral sheet for the main part of the pajama pants rather than a vintage pillowcase. While cutting the pieces I made sure to line up the bottom with the hem already at the top of the sheet. Great idea Jane's Apron! This gave me a nice wide hem at the bottom of my pant legs. As you can see in the photo, the pants sit very high at the waist (love the 70's!). I wanted mine to sit more comfortably so I cut 3 inches off the top of the pants after I had them all sewn together. I then made a casing out of a coordinating vintage sheet fabric. Kelley green ribbon threaded through the casing finished them off and created a vibrant bow. I love how they turned out. So comfy! I'm going to try another pair today - a cropped version incorporating more fabrics and maybe some lace.