The cutest (and cuddliest) pj pants ever!

These pants are brought to you in part by "The Crappiest Week Ever" and the letter Z.

Ok, I'm joking about the letter Z.  Although it's really giving me a run for the money in more than one Words With Friends game right now.

But I'm not actually joking about the crappy week.  As of right now, Wednesday night, there has been house selling drama, a broken cell phone, a puking momma, a house showing that ended with "your 5-bedroom, 2000 sq. ft. house is too small for my clients", and then a puking 3-year old!

We had the house showing earlier today, and the feedback came through a few hours later.  I won't bore everyone with my rant about the house, so let's just leave it with I-was-really-upset.

Needing a break from life, I wandered into my sewing room.  (Not too hard to do, in my *small* house.  Ok, ok, I'm done ranting.  Really.)  Back to the sewing room: I needed a simple project to occupy my mind, and give me a sense of completion.  Unfortunately, all of the projects on my "must do now" list (not to be confused with the 5 million page long to do list), are complicated and time consuming.  So I broke my rule about starting something new, and I made these pj pants for Addy.

Details:
Fabric: Colorful Christmas by Riley Blake
I used a flannel, and it is SOOOO soft!  So much softer than the stuff at JoAnn's!
Pattern: Sasha Pants (I actually have the size 18/24mo - 5T pattern, but I don't see it on their site)
I used a size 4T, but I also sewed larger (3/8") seam allowances to allow for serging and a larger (1") bottom hem.  Even with those changes, the 4T will probably fit Addy for 2 years.
Lastly, I cut the 4T pants plus two 2" strips from 3/4 yard of fabric.  I probably could have gotten the 5T out of 3/4 yard if it wasn't a flannel.  Those flannels just fray so much in the wash!  If you have a stripe that runs selvedge to selvedge, you would need more yardage.
Extras: 5/8" white ribbon

I added the ruffle myself.  My initial intent was to make a wide ruffle at the hem.  But I was lazy, and I cut the pant legs at the regular length.  That didn't leave me enough fabric for a wide ruffle-and besides, I would have had to chop a bit off of the pant legs that I just cut.  I couldn't waste those few inches!

So, I finished the raw edges of the 2" strips with a rolled hem on my serger.  Then I ruffled it (for Bernina people, I used a stitch length of 5 and the "6" setting on my ruffler).  After it was ruffled, I pressed it.  The ruffle will fluff up again in the wash, and pressing it helps make it more manageable.  I basted the ruffles onto the open pant legs with the bottom edge of the ruffle at the stitch line for the hem (I used a 1" hem).  Then I laid my ribbon down so that it was centered over the basting stitches, and sewed down either side of the ribbon.

Ok, enough rambling.  Here are some action pics!

 

The ruffle detail:

And a teaser shot!

See those pillows above?  Those are two FINISHED Mendocino pillows!!  I'm going to wait to post when I have all 4 complete, but I actually am making progress. :)