Weekend Project: Teddy Bear Pajamas

I ran up the door and closed the stairs,
said my pajamas and put on my prayers,
turned off the bed and hopped in the light,
all because you kissed me goodnight.

~ Unknown

I had a chance to start working on this outfit for baby Alex this weekend. There were 8 pattern pieces - 9 if you count the fact that you need to cut the bottom of the foot piece twice (for 4 pieces).




The first step was to attach the raglan sleeves.



Next you stitch up the side seams and underarm seams.



And then the "aaaaw!" cuteness factor comes into play with the tiny cuffs at the end of each sleeve.



The cuff instructions were standard - before inserting the cuff you are supposed to baste its raw edges together. However the cuff had to be stretched to fit the end of the sleeve, and I found it difficult to stretch it sufficiently with the basting in place. So I ended up removing that.


Next was the facing around the front of the romper.





The instructions called for interfacing to be applied to the facing. I didn't bother, as the fabric I'm using is a stretch knit, and I think it turned out to be a good thing. As with the cuff, I had to stretch the facing quite a bit to get it to fit around the neckline - I don't think I could have gotten it to fit if I had applied interfacing...


All throughout this time, I had been wondering about the "legs" (or apparent lack thereof) for this romper. It is supposed to have legs, yet the back was one solid piece. The next series of steps were to remedy this situation. First, I traced the markings along the bottom center of the back, and stitched inside the lines to reinforce what was soon to become a seam.



Next I cut up the middle and made a kind of star pattern by clipping into the stitches in two places.



Then the instructions had me open out the back along this cut, and attach a rectangular piece of fabric.



Once it was sewn on, I folded it around and stitched -in-the-ditch, like a binding.



Now, you can see how the front and back will attach to make legs. Although I'm still not sure how it will all combine right in the center of the crotch area...


I'll just mention that the instructions had me cut 2 of the rectangular piece of "binding" for the back, and it appears as if I'm only going to use one of them...


The main steps left are getting the booties made and attached, and then the snaps. Hopefully I can finish it during the evenings this week, so that I can give it to Juana next weekend.


On the other hand, I made a medium (at her request), and he weighs around 7 pounds, so it's not like he's going to outgrow it any day now... ;)


I hope you had a good sewing weekend and are ready for another week!