Because Miss A can't read my blog, yet

Here is my one handmade gift to give this season. I usually try to make a few things but am afraid I've run out of creative steam. And my sewing ability is shaky at best lately. I've made a lot of really dumb mistakes while sewing as of late. I wish I could blame it on my machine or someone else but I'm afraid it's just me. I suppose it's time to hit Target and buy the boys PJ's, I just don't think I can attempt to sew anything else until 2010.
I had a lot of handmade pajamas as a kid and I'm pretty sure that 95% of them came from this same pattern. I'm not even kidding, just ask my mom. The fact that it's still in print (after all these years) is pretty amazing considering pattern companies rarely keep patterns for very long. I've used this pattern quite a bit with my boys when making pajama bottoms. It was fun to make the feminine version this time around.

Pattern: Butterick 4222 in a size three. I made view B, but omitted the neck ruffle (I remember not liking it as a kid). Instead of eyelet trim, I used a coordinating fabric and made my own ruffle trim. I used my serger's rolled hem feature to finish the edge and my ruffler foot to gather it all (5 yards after gathering). The pattern was fairly straight forward and not complex. The pants went together very easily, and the top wasn't too bad other than gathering the pieces to the yoke, which wasn't hard- just time consuming. It seems a bit big, but I won't know until Christmas Eve how it really fits her. It might just seem big because the top is so full. Also, because the pattern is multisized and has so many different views, take care when cutting it out. I accidently (as was mentioned above) cut the wrong size out of a top piece and cut the wrong view (thankfully it was the longer view) out on the pants. It wouldn't have been a big deal other than I ended up 4 inches too short on fabric and had to scour every quilt store in the state to find more. Just a hint, finding snowman fabric two weeks before Christmas is not fun....

Fabric: Riley Blake "Be Merry" fabrics. In hind sight. I wish I would have used a fabric for the trim that had a little more contrast. And I wish I had made the ruffle just a bit wider. It's difficult to tell the difference between the trim fabric and the main print.