Toddler Jammies

 For his second birthday, I made my toddler two pairs of summer pajamas.  The pattern is Peekaboo Patterns Alex & Anna pajamas, which has short, long, and sleeveless options.  My son is currently wearing 2T clothing, but he's in bulky cloth diapers.  His chest measurement put him in the 2T top, and his hip measurement around his night-time diaper put him in the 3T shorts, but I decided to make him the 4T top and shorts in the hopes that they'll fit him for at least two summers. 

The main fabrics are from a grab box I ordered from Fabricworm fabrics a few months ago.  The blue fish are a 95% cotton, 5% spandex jersey.  It was wide, so I was able to cut the whole set out of just half a yard!  I still have a second piece, which is about a yard.  The giraffes are an interlock knit, and it seems pretty stretchy, although the selvage didn't include a label or fiber content.  It wasn't quite as wide, but I still do have some leftover for something else - which is nice, because we love giraffes!  The interlock was very easy to sew.  I cut the contrasting bands on both pairs from scraps leftover from the two pairs of maternity leggings I made myself last winter. 

I constructed these almost entirely on my serger.  The instructions were very clear, and they went together pretty quickly and easily, although it would have been nice if there were notches to help with setting in the sleeves.  The only elastic I had was non-roll elastic (and I couldn't buy any other elastic because people pandemic-panic-bought all of the elastic!), so I couldn't sew the elastic directly to the top of the shorts as instructed.  Instead, I made a snug casing with a tiny seam allowance (so as not to reduce the rise) and threaded the non-roll elastic through.  I stuck a little folded scrap of the pink jersey into the back waist of each pair of shorts so that my husband and son will be able to identify the front and back (the shirts have the neckband seam at the back, so I figured the fake tag wasn't necessary there).  I intended to hem the shirt and topstitch the band seams with a double needle, but then I stupidly broke the double needle by installing it in my machine without checking that the needle was centered.  Instead, I hemmed the shirts with a zigzag stitch and decided not to topstitch the band seams.