Thursday, May 24, 2012

New Monkey Pjs and the Evolution of Sewing Skills

  The other night before bed-time, I finished my son´s new monkey pjs.  He loves them and so do I.


I used the Goodnight Sweetheart PJs pattern from the pattern book Sewing for Boys by Patterns by Figgy´s.  This is an awesome book!  I made my first pair of these pjs last week as a gift for a little boy named Ali who is turning two.  And I made my son a pair of Treasure Pocket Pants (shorts) before that.

This book also contains their raglan tee pattern (aka Tee for Two), which I had bought separately before the book came out.  I have used that pattern A LOT.


So, here is my son after sleeping all night in his new pjs, bed-head and all....

 
They are a bit big (they are size 4/5 and he barely wears a 4), which is good.  He should be able to wear them for a couple of years.

As it turns out, I made him some monkey pjs probably around 4 years ago that I forgot about.  They are already a little bit too small for little sister.


What really struck me when looking at these old monkey pjs was not that my taste hasn´t changed much (even used wood buttons then), but how bad the sewing is on them.  The binding has frayed off both sleeves and the weird bound buttonholes look messy.   And of course, now I have evolved to using French seams whenever I can.
 
Check out the difference:
  


I am already working on a few more projects, including another Patterns by Figgy´s dress and finally something for my husband (gasp!).  He said he would like a pair of these pjs, but I just don´t have that much monkey fabric......

4 comments:

Franco said...

These are adorable!

nanlee said...

So cute. Love the bedhead.

nadakomm said...

Amazing work dawn. So proud of you. . . And you have the cutest models!

Karen LePage said...

I love the monkey fabric! And I'm so impressed by your sewing improvements. ISn't it AMAZING what we can learn through practice, asking questions, and more practice?