Burda Girls Harlem Trousers 05/2013

For those of you who follow my blog regularly will know that I have a younger cousin who lives quite a while away and whom I only get to see once or twice a year. Last weekend I was in her neck of the woods, so of course I had to drop of a gift. The pattern I decided to make for her was the burda Harlem trousers, which you can find here. 

This was such an easy pattern to make. It has only two pattern pieces (the front and the back). I then choose to add a yoga style waist band and cuffs around the ankles. As the pattern was so easy to follow, this piece took around two hours from start to finish.

For the fabric, I choose this light blue jersey that I've had in my stash for nearly 4 years now. The fabric originally came from a 60p and was perfect for this pattern.

 

Sadly I didn't get to see my cousin try on the trousers but I did get a call from my aunt, saying that my cousin really liked them.  

Most popular posts of 2015

So I wanted to look back over 2015 and I thought the best to do that would be to look at the top 3 most popular posts of 2015.

My Tartan Skirt

The owl dress

Old t-shirts to new pyjama bottoms 

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what 2016 has in store.

The Grand Reveal!

So here it is, I'm not going to write much as I'm keen to rejoin my family to enjoy the celebrations.

The unwrapping

Grandma

Mum

Dad

My Sister

In the end my sister, as she her self said, decided to "go solo" and she choose not to match my Granddad.

Granddad (and his interesting way of styling pyjamas)

And finally, Me

I hope you have a very merry Christmas!

Pyjama No.7

Here it is, the final Pyjama. I hope you've liked this slightly weird series but don't forget there will be a grand reveal soon and an extra post at some point this week.

I made these pyjama bottoms for my Dad. Again I had the same problem with finding fabric, as I did with the pyjama bottoms I made for my Grandfather, there wasn't much selection when it came to buying second hand bed sheets that would make reasonable pyjama bottoms for a man.

Top: Primark (£3.00)

Trousers: Made by me from a second hand pirate themed bed sheet.

I realise that this top is might push the pirate themed trousers over the limit but it's my Dad, I'm sure he'll see the funny side. Besides it was this or getting him an ugly Christmas jumper, so really he got off quite lightly. Also I really struggled to find a top that matched and so in the right size, so I decided to pick up on the white and red in the trousers.

Again the trousers where too long to fit into one photo. For the trousers, I used both the front and the back of the bed sheet, so that one leg would be covered in stripes and the other would show case a pirate ship. You might be starting to see why these pyjamas could be a bit over whelming.

I hope this has inspired you!

Pyjama No.6

Hey, here's another one! I'm so close to finishing them now that I'm starting to get really excited about my family opening them on the 24th and already, I'm forgetting about the stress of making them.

This set is for my Grandfather. I really struggled to find suitable Christmas-ish fabric for the men, so in the end I opted for this angel fabric, which originally came from an awful ruffled bed set from the charity shop. You should have seen the shop assistants face when I went to buy it.

  Top: Primark (£2.50)

Trousers: Made by me, from a second hand bed sheet.

To make the trousers, I 'borrowed' a pair of my Dads trousers, as they're roughly the same size but made them slightly longer. As my Grandfather is a little bit taller than my Dad and yes the trousers where too long to fit into one photo.

When buying a top, I went for a light grey top, mainly because it was the only one I could find in the right size that matched colour wise.

Like I state earlier, I'm so close to finishing. So stay tuned for the last pyjama and the grand reveal.

I hope this has inspired you!

Pyjama No.5

I know this is a little later than planned but I'm currently up to my eyes in pyjamas, as well as other commitments.

Today I wanted to share with you the complete set of pyjamas that I'm giving my sister for Christmas. The first of the bottoms, is made out of two angel pillow cases, whilst the other is made out of a really cosy throw. The angel shorts matches with one of the men's pyjamas, whilst the throw is completely unique to her. It's up to her, whether or not she wants to match on the night.

The set includes:

Long sleeved top: Primark (£3.50)

Shorts: Made by me out of second hand pillow cases.

Trousers: Made from a tartan throw, I found in a random shop.

I made a pattern for the bottoms by borrowing my sisters favourite pyjama bottoms but of course me being me, I added probably a little too much wriggle room.

When it came to making these shorts, I wanted to keep the ruffle that was already on the original pillow case, so I simply made the ruffle the bottom of the shorts. I also think, that although they are shorts, the angels add a bit of Christmas spirit to them.

I couldn't get the full trousers into the photo, but you get the general idea. Again I used the detail on the throw to create detail on the bottom of the trousers, which can be seen bellow.

I hope this has inspired you!

Pyjama No.3

Here's another one! Today I want to share with you the pyjamas that I've made for my Mum.

These will no doubt be the best fitting pyjama bottoms that I'll be giving this Christmas, as my mum was able to try them on at every stage, making them the perfect set of bottoms. My mums very much like me, tall and skinny, and so has the same problem, with finding trousers that are long enough.

Top: Primark (£3.50)

Trousers: made by me out of a second hand bed sheet (originally from H&M)

When it came to getting a top to match the pyjama bottoms, I wanted to again pick up on the more purple tones of the fabric I had used for the bottoms and as the bottoms are full length, I decided to get a long sleeved top.

To make the trousers, I drafted a pattern from a pair of her jeans and then I added an awful lot of seam allowance and wriggle room to make these really loose pair of pyjama bottoms. Finally I brought in these trousers at the top with a medium height elastic, which I cut to the measurement I had taken from my Mum.

So now we're almost half way through the pyjamas, so I hope this has inspired you!

Pyjama No.1

Hi there! Today I'm going to share with you the first of my self designed Pyjama bottoms. I'll also explain to you how I made them.

This set is for my Grandma and is made from the fabric that all the women will be wearing. When I saw this fabric I knew it would be perfect as it has that subtle hint of red that gives them that slightly festive feeling.

Top: Primark (£2.80)

Bottoms: Made and designed by me. The fabric I used was a bed sheet that I bought at the charity shop (Originally from H&M)

I decided that I only wanted everyone to be slightly matched and so on a recent Christmas shopping trip, I went to Primark to pick up lots of plain tops. For my Grandma I went for a simple white t-shirt. 

To make the bottoms I simply drafted a pattern from my Mums trousers. Before you ask my Mum is in on the secret as she walked in on me making a pair for my Dad and I've found her help to be very useful as she knows all our sizes and has managed to get her hands on trousers from different family members, without them suspecting a thing. Anyway, back to what I was saying. My Mum and Grandma are the same size only my Grandma is shorter, so I drafted a pattern from my Mums trousers but made them a lot larger, to be on the safe side and to allow for plenty of wriggle room. By adding elastic to the waistband, I'm now sure they will fit her. As I'm not sure exactly how tall my Grandma is, I decided to add ribbing to the bottom of these three quarter lengths, so as to make them more adjustable in length. So that's how the design was made.

Stay tuned to see the rest of the Pyjama bottoms and as always I hope this has inspired you!

The plan

So I know I haven't posted in a while but I've been busy balancing my work and my sewing. This week was also the week where I finally decided what I would make for Christmas.
I was having a little noisy at some Christmas vlogs on-line, when I noticed that a lot of them seemed to feature family members all receiving matching pyjamas. I couldn't help but think how cheesily (I'm not sure if that's a word) cute this ritual was, when it dawned on me that I could make pyjama bottoms for the whole family.

So here's the plan (which I'm half way there to completing).

I'm going to make pyjama bottoms for each family member that I will be spending Christmas with. The bottoms will be made out of either the same fabric or matching fabric. Each person will have a different style of pyjama, as that way each person will still be an individual and the pyjamas won't become some kind of weird uniform.

As I'm already half way through this project, I've already sourced the fabric.

I had to also share with you where I got the fabric for this project from, as it's probably one of the best finds I've had in a long while. I've found bedding sets at my local charity shop (the equivalent of a thrift store). This means that the fabric is cheap and pre-washed, which saves me a job and makes the whole process quicker. Out of each double bed sheet I can get 2 to 3 bottoms and for every single sheet, I make 1 to 2 bottoms. Finally, I've bought several matching tops, in every ones sizes at Primark, as I don't think these pyjamas will be worn more than once, but hey, they'll make great pictures.

You may be asking how many bottoms I need to make.

Well I've got to make bottoms for six people and I'm making a night dress for my cousin to send off in the post, as she won't be spending Christmas with us this year and I didn't want her to miss out. However I've made two options for my sister, one long and one short, so that she will have an option. Another reason for this is because I think the long ones may be a little too long (I'm sure she'll grow into them at some point, right.)

I'm going to give out these pyjamas on Christmas eve!

My blog post won't just be on Sundays and Thursdays now in the run up to Christmas. so stay tuned, as you never know when a post may appear.

As always, I hope this has inspired you!

My Indian Trousers

I've recently travelled to India with a group of friends to complete a community project. If any of you have ever looked into the climate in India you will realise that it's fairly hot.

Whilst working I wanted something that wouldn't be too warm but would still be practical. So I made my self a pair of floaty trousers, that I could work in quite comfortably.

 One of the joys about having made them myself, was that I didn't feel protective of them and so didn't mind if they got trashed during the process.

 I'm afraid I didn't get any photos of the trousers before I had started working, so you get to see them in all their paint and dirt covered glory.

These trousers seem to be all the range at the moment and are an absolute dream to make, due to there being very little fitting involved.

I hope this has inspired you!