Cotton flannel pajama bottoms for son

Plaid cotton flannel again!  This time I'm using a printed plaid, a Blizzard cotton flannel I bought on Black Friday sale for only $1.49/yd.  I've used this Blizzard flannel before to make my mother-in-law pajamas, which she loved, and no problems with it after getting a heads-up that cotton flannel is a progressive shrinker.  In fact, I liked that flannel enough to buy more of that specific print on the Black Friday sale (along with half a dozen others!).

Elastic waistband pajama bottoms are super easy to make, and are also the only thing son has asked me to make for him.  McCall's 4244 men's pajama set has good reviews at PR, so I am not expecting any problems here ... once I determined the fabric was okay.  As I pulled it out to iron it, I noticed the plaid wasn't lining up.  After yesterday's experience with the twisted offgrain woven flannel, I put my nose down to the fabric to see if this one had done the same.  Nope ... the print is offgrain, not the weave.  Whew!  So keep in mind the print is off on this fabric:

For my son, this is a very colorful plaid.  Seriously ... it has red in it!  Son's taste in colors is similar to hubby's: greens and browns, and son throws rusts into the mix.

I had thought I may have an even plaid on my hands, but the ruler says not.  The crossgrain stripes are 3-3/8 inches apart, while the ongrain stripes are 4 inches.  It is unbalanced, as evident in the pic.  So, an unbalanced uneven plaid to play with ... printed offgrain. 

So, I've already gotten the front piece cut out ... all I have still to cut is the back and pockets for each side seam.  The elastic length is already measured in the most scientific way possible: wrapping elastic around his waist and snugging it to what he calls comfortable, then taking it in another inch to account for the flannel's thickness and weight.  I learned early on with suede pants that fabric weight and thickness affect how well the elastic will hold the pants up ... both my suede "pirate" pants have large safety pins helping the waistbands stay up!

I'm guessing my biggest challenge will be getting my son to model the finished project for a picture ...

Useless plaid cotton flannel - twisted and offgrain

Well, that just blew my long sleeve flannel shirt for hubby clean out of the water.  It's a woven plaid, not printed, so when it refused to line up - even with pinning the selvages together and an attempt at coercive ironing and much harsh language in the process, I might add - I find myself back at the drawing board.

I asked on PR's message board about possible uses for this fabric, and have to admit a couple sound useful: the pet bed suggestion has merit here, but using it as bias tape ... I truly hate the colors!  Hubby and I have two totally different ideas of what defines "colorful" clothing.  I love pinks, purples and lavenders, and just about every variation of blue, while hubby likes subdued greens and browns, with an occasional navy blue thrown in but nothing too bright or strong or vibrant.

Just for trivial random rambling fun, the offgrain plaid is balanced but uneven, per my personal definitions of plaids.  While the repeats have symmetry, parallel to the selvage is 3.5 inches while perpendicular to the selvage is 2.5 inches.  I can't exactly use the terms "grainline" and "crossgrain" to describe this fabric.  At least it won't be too expensive of a mistake: I bought it during a half-off sale on a day with an additional 10% total purchase.

Maybe I can use it to stuff my bumroll for Renn Faire ... or maybe if I make a pet bed of it the cats might lay on it instead of my fabric stash ... hey, it could happen.  Now I'll have to go stash-diving for another warm fabric to make hubby's shirt ... it's going to be hard to break the news to him because he's really been looking forward to this shirt since he discovered the fabric 3 weeks ago.

McCall's 4518 Palmer/Pletsch "unisex" shirt for hubby

And yes, I used quote marks for "unisex" because once again, the fitting instructions for turning a flat-front men's shirt into a shaped front women's shirt is ... annoying.  Once again, I cannot help but wonder WHY didn't they do two separate shirts?  I don't think it's new news that (on average) mens' and women's torsos tend to be shaped differently.  So why is a pattern maker trying to make one shirt pattern fit both?

At first, I thought maybe this was some Great Fitting Secret that no one has bothered to tell me ... then I got to actually using my last two working brain cells and recalled seeing women's shirt patterns without shaping.  OK, so the transformation of a totally nonshaped shirt pattern to fit a woman's shape does has its usefulness.

That being said ... I am making this shirt for my husband, who is the epitome of The Ultimate Easy Fitting.  I still am a bit puzzled why there isn't a sheet for just the construction steps ... instead there is 8 pages (!) of fitting plus construction plus more fitting.  Please, Palmer/Pletsch/McCall's ... please make a simple "cheat sheet" of just the construction steps, with asterisks (*) for where to consult fitting notes or just put this in as an addition.

Oh yeah, the official start pic, with what hubby considers color:

I bought this fabric on sale in November, and hubby found it in late December.  I wasn't trying to hide it ... he just doesn't always notice new fabrics unless I show as I pull them out of the bag or box.  The truly amusing part is, he actually asked if he could have this fabric for a shirt!  LOL  This plaid is way, WAY too bland for me ... not to mention I don't like wearing browns, so I wondered who he thought the fabric might be for if not for him.  Gotta love him.

While I would love to participate in Peter's Mens Shirt Sew-Along, I am going to have to jump the gun on it.  Hubby has been patiently waiting almost a month for this shirt.  He really wants a nice warm flannel long sleeve shirt to wear around the house ... and I would like to get new fabric without hearing about "Now where will we put this?"  So, I am starting this shirt today, as the evil white stuff starts to swirl through the air outside my windows ...

S2566 blouse and vest

The buttons are on and the vest is finished!  I managed to persuade my teenage son to take pics, and he insisted I try everything on for Thursday evening.  Since I only have a little over 48 hours until the banquet, I won't get black slacks done up, so I will be wearing brand new black jeans with the blouse and vest ... but I am quite pleased with how this turned out overall.  Especially my first attempt at plaid matching.  First, the back view:

Hmm, little bit of pooling in the small of my back ... looks like I might need to learn the swayback adjustment next ... after I nail down the FBA idea, of course.  Now, about that FBA:

It buttons over my boobs without gapping or pulling!  That alone is a victory for me.  I'll need to refine my shaping skills, as I have a bit of gapping at the armhole ... but it's also possible I unintentionally pulled the fabric.  Guess who skipped the staystitching again?

I have plenty of room in the waist, even without curving my seams outward on the sides seams.  Since I had to wait for my son to finish his breakfast, I've been wearing it for a good 20 minutes and moved around and even tied back my hair while waiting, so I know for sure I have freedom of movement in this.

Overall, I like this pattern.  Once I get the blouse's side dart FBA just right, I'll trace this one off onto the red dot stuff so I can use it more.  I probably won't need too many vests like this, but a summer one could come in handy for son's end of year awards functions.

Next up in the "to sew" list: cotton flannel long sleeved shirt for hubby ... in plaid.  LOL

It looks like a plaid vest now

Today I laid out the pieces, cut them out, and after a nap put the various plaid wool pieces together into something that now strongly resembles a vest:

Looks like I got lucky in the front with the vertical "mirror" image even plaid matching up!  The princess seams won't as impressive, as the wool shifted slightly while sewing ... plus there's that whole curve idea ... which I also did on the waist.

Now comes the fun part: pinning the lining to the plaid wool along all but the side seams.  This may take a while, but I did break out extra pins for the occasion.

Plaid matching ... sorta

I'm a bit slow to get moving this morning.  Maybe I need more coffee, or maybe it's because I sound like a bowl of Rice Crispies trying to move around.  My son celebrated his snow day off school by sleeping in ... and since he's finally up and moving I guess I should make an attempt at moving around myself.

I had to wait my turn for the dryer yesterday, and while I did get the wool run through the dryer with a hot wet towel ... I didn't layout the pattern pieces are do any cutting.  However I have started that this morning:

Maybe I'm just not feeling too adventurous this morning.  Or maybe my cheap gene is telling me the $1/yd cotton print plaid would be better to do full plaid-matching than this lovely $8/yd wool ... but I am only matching horizontally, using a very convenient shorten/lengthen line on the pattern that is consistent on all pieces just 1 inch above the waistline (which is only marked on the front piece anyway).  I've lined all the pieces up so that one white yarn is centered between the s/l lines on the pattern ... which also required a bit of gentle tugging on the fabric to get it as straight as I am going to accomplish this morning.  I even drew a blue arrow at the top of the pic to point out the lines and white yarn, but the tip of the arrow is a bit off.

I've read that plaid matching is best accomplished by cutting out single thickness, but my Thursday evening deadline is roaring up on me fast.  I have plenty of cheaper plaids to work out the details ... if I'm honest about it, I simply have plenty of plaids.  I do love plaids, so at some point in the near future I will get a better handle on matching these plaids both ways.

Caffeine, nicotine, and sugar are my usual methods of motivation in the morning ... and today breakfast was a piece of my birthday cake from last night, so it's definitely "one of those mornings".  If you have useful tips on plaid matching, feel free to leave them here ... and I'll refer back to them when I am in a more cheerful mood.

Another tip from my "Thank you, Sgt Obvious" file: spellcheck function catches typos.  Who'd've thunk it?