Pyjamas

My first venture into sewing jersey involved making two garments. Yes, two! First I made a vest top, then some pyjamas to go with it. I sewed it all on my vintage singer – no zigzagger (I have one but can’t get it to work properly), no walking foot and no overlocker, just plain ‘ol straight stitch. Here’s what happened.

The fabric:

I bought some navy cotton jersey from Croft Mill. It’s a company which sell ends from the big manufacturers. So although the fabric itself isn’t organic or anything, it’s using up something which could otherwise be thrown away. When it arrived I was amazed by how soft and fine it is. It has a two-way stretch, and was surprisingly heavy. Really lovely!

The pattern:

I bought a New Look pattern for the pyjamas which had lots of options – I decided to make the vest top and slim pyjamas bottoms.

With the vest top I attempted my first full bust adjustment! I realise now that I did it completely wrong… after taking my measurements, I was a size 16 in the bust and size 12 for the waist for this pattern. Rather than merging the curves as it suggests in the pattern, I decided add in a bust dart.

I traced out the size 12 then estimated the bust dart. I think I should have picked but size 12 based on my upper bust measurement, but I just picked it because that was the waist size. According to my measurements I needed to add at least 2inches to the bust. I cut a line from the bust dart to the armhole and one vertically downwards. Then I tried opening it out, but when I tried to get it to 2inches I almost ripped the paper! So I settled on 1inch and then added a bit to the side (not the best approach!).

For the pyjamas I decided to not make any adjustments, and sewed a size 12. So much easier! Overall I found the pattern quite clear to follow.

The challenges:

The main challenges I had with these (aside from the fit) related to sewing stretchy fabric. The woolly nylon has some stretch, but it isn’t really enough and some of the stitches may end up breaking.

Also, using a standard foot did end up stretching the jersey at the seams – you can see this in the neckline of the vest. Ironing helped but couldn’t fix all issues. I’m hoping to get a walking foot soon.

There may come a time when I need to buy a modern machine, but for now I’m going to soldier on with my Singer 99K.

The final result:

So the vest top fit was far too big. It had excess material in the front and is too low as well – though the darts gave it a nice shape. I’ve since learned that darts are rarely used in knits, as the stretch makes them unnecessary. I fully intend to remake this as I have material left and I wear vest tops a lot. I found a good guide to fitting knits here with useful links:

https://www.thesplendidstitch.co.uk/blogs/news/dartless-fbas

The pyjamas are great! They are soooo comfy. Overall, I need to remake the top but I’m really pleased.