Girls Pajama Top

This project could be tied in with the last post, as they are both pajama pieces, but this one is special, so I feel it deserves its own post.

For one thing, the "star" patterned pants I made for DD developed a hole in the crotch area after ONE wearing. What the?? That upset me enough to appeal to the (fabulous) Sewing Mamas group, and as usual, I received many very thoughtful and helpful responses. I needed to make a better top.

For another thing, after seeing the pants, my daughter asked me to make a top out of the same fabric. I had intended to do a knit top. Ok.....

So I head into the project, and realize quickly that I don't have enough star flannel to make the entire top. I decided to cut the sleeves from the flannel, and the body pieces from the white knit. While taking the pattern pieces out of the bag, I found two cuff pieces I had cut previously and had not used. They match perfectly with the star fabric. Hm! This project was just kind of falling into place.

Last night, I got as far as cutting the pieces before quitting for the night. This afternoon, I was on the Sewing Mamas website, reading about the challenge of the month, which is to try a new technique. Utterly unsure of what to try for this challenge, I started to read a thread where one woman had asked the rest of us what we'd be doing for the challenge. She was unsure too! I was anxious to see what others had to say. Again and again I read that folks were going to try something called reverse applique. Having no idea what that was, I did a google search. The second listing to come up was a tutorial by a woman on Sewing Mamas! That's where I headed to read about it. It seemed fairly uncomplicated, and I was at the perfect point in this project to give it a try.

 The first step is find an image to use. Something not too complicated, as you have to sew around the edges. I chose a star, to go along with the pattern.











I placed the star where I wanted it....

 A piece of the flannel fabric is behind the shirt front, and got pinned in place under the star.

 Here's the back.

 I stitched through all the layers.

 I carefully tore the paper away. Although I've never done reverse applique before, I have stitched fabrics together using a paper imagine on top (such as the tic tac toe board below,) and I'm always nervous about pulling the stitches out when I remove the paper.

 I snipped the knit fabric away inside the stitching to reveal the fabric underneath. Cool! This shirt is getting more interesting by the minute!

Now assembly can begin. Here I am sewing on the first sleeve. Due to my issues with the seam pulling apart on the pants, I am stitching, serging and topstitching every seam.

This is as far as I got tonight.

 Conveniently, I had some premade cuffs that matched.

 DD requested a yellow collar. It's a bit lemony, so I showed the fabric to her before making the collar, and also showed her pink (matching the cuffs) and white. She insisted on the yellow. It adds to the funkiness. =)

 She loves them! Here are some modeling shots.

 The arms are too short. DD is now too big for a size 4, and too small for a size 5. I adjusted the waist, the length of the legs, but not the arms. Now I know!

 My attempt at a shot from the back, as she she grows weary of the photo shoot and flies up the stairs. The back is high enough, she just prefers to wear her pants low on her waist.

I really enjoyed doing reverse applique! Now I want to do more. Some cute spring/summer outfits for the kids might in order....