Pajamas for the young ones? Well of course! Around December, I fondly remember waking up early in my own PJs to find out if I had a snow day or not and waking early Christmas day to see what Santa had brought. No matter what, PJs simply are a December staple in my memory. We are finally seeing some snow here in Michigan so I thought a more 'wintery' pattern was in order for this Free Pattern Friday and what can be more 'wintery' than soft pajamas?? I offer to you an assortment of patterns for boys and girls of many different ages and needs. These patterns are all making use of a pants pattern with a separate top for the older tots and for the youngest, an all in one. For these patterns if you look at the illustration closely, you will see that you can get a lot of variation simply by being creative. For the boys, they used a plaid and a stripe. For the girl, a floral top and detailing with a solid pant.
The look for the youngest of children is an all in one look with the pants and top drafted together possibly with an elastic waistband (optional) and a zipper down the center front (if desired). Upon closer inspection though, the all in one appears to have a recommended side opening as indicated by a dotted line showing a placket placement. In the original pattern, the all in one front is cut with the pants while the back is in two parts (pant and top). The back is shown with buttons indicating a back button clouser (the back top of the all in one is called 'Ruckenteil' on the piece itself and the front piece has the top front and front pant illustrated as one and has the indications pockets drawn in) . For the all in one collar, 'Kragen', it is shown at the very top of the card. The sleeve for the all in one is a simple one piece sleeve in the upper right corner called 'Armel'. A small note too, in the illustration, you can add cuffs to the garment or omit them. Your choice.
What is especially nice about this pattern card is that this same card can be used with children at many different stages of growth. Even better yet is that these garments can be made to grow with the child by adding extra material at the hems and doing a deep hem to be let out at a later date or else adding an elastic band at the pants for further growth.
Some special notes for pajama pattern for the older children, look at the pants. You will see that there is no outside seam, just an inner leg one and that is because they are cut on the fold. Of course, if your material is really narrow, you could omit the fold and sew them up with a seam. On the pants patterns too, the collar pattern has been squeezed in there to keep that in mind. For the top, the top here is shown double breasted and is illustrated with long or short sleeves. For the body, there is a small dart and thankfully all the points for the dart are given so that eliminates a great deal of guess work in deciding its depth. The dotted line gives you an idea of how deep the facing ought to be and where the overlap ought to end. The back is cut on the fold. For the sleeves, the pattern gives a two piece sleeve pattern often called a 'coat' sleeve. If you want to, you could use the given one piece sleeve instead and I think your results will be just fine in the end. To get the short sleeve look, simple shorten the pattern the desired length.
Not given in the pattern, the belts. These are long, narrow rectangles and really do not require a pattern. Materials? I think a nice flannel would do really well here or any soft material of your choice. Also, although these are for children, these patterns can be used for adults too. That is a nice thing about this system . . .
Need the ruler? Simply ask . . .
