A handy set of jammies

If only to showcase yet another thing a person can adapt from basic, tried-and-true patterns: I've made another matching set adapted from my button-up shirt and pants sloper. This time, it's a sleepwear set made from this quirky shadow puppet-print cotton flannel from Joann.

 

I'll try to keep the sewing talk brief, as I've already written a lot about my personal button-up shirt pattern. (And also because it seems unhelpful to write extensively about something that is not a product and is available to nobody else). There's no typical back yoke and pleat, the back is just in one piece. I dropped the shoulders a bit, maybe a quarter inch to give me some extra room. My shirt pattern normally has side bust darts, I redrew the side seam and armhole to omit them for a straighter cut.

I rounded the corners on the collar piece as well as the front notches. I used store-bought piping on the collar, the edge of the button placket, the breast pocket, and the sleeve cuffs. Normally I have a placket on the sleeves, as well as a pleat to help pull in some volume at the cuff. I omitted both of those things because I think a pajama sleeve and cuff should generally fit looser for comfort.

   

The pants could be better, I think. I took my pants sloper and expanded the side seams, maybe an inch, inch-and-a-half? And then stuck an elastic waistband on. There's more width than necessary and some excess material settles around the crotch. I was too lazy to remove any, I can't be arsed if I'm going to sleep in them. They don't need to look perfect to do their job, you know? I do wish that I had bothered to print out and use the pajama pants pattern I had downloaded instead. There are so many free patterns available, and I'd likely get a better result from one of them too.

I find the black-and-white print striking in the clean lines and sharp contrast. However, I didn't think I could last a second in white pajamas. Lounge wear ideally should be easy to take care of and I was not looking forward to fearing stains if I ever so much as glanced at some marinara sauce. But the benefit is that a white background is the perfect literal blank canvas, very welcome to change. So I broke out the fabric dye.

I used good ol' Rit all-purpose dye because it's inexpensive and stocked in every craft store. It's also apparently one of the worst commercially available dyes, something I sadly learned from seasoned dyers mere hours after completing the dye job. I heard it's decent for wool, but fades quickly in cellulose fibers, which... My pajamas are cotton flannel. Shit. You'd think by now I'd have learned not to equate ubiquity with quality, and yet! I'll just have to see for myself if this is a bad product as I continue to launder the pajamas over time. Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst!

Moving on. I mixed two colors in the powder form, Fuchsia and Purple, to achieve a warm, saturated purple. I used 1 tablespoon of each color. This was sufficient to dye my jams which weigh just over 1 pound dry. I dyed each piece twice; I put both the shirt and the pants in the first dip, saw that the color was splotchy and uneven, so I drew a second and third bath to dye them separately. My too-small pot is likely what hindered the dye job in the first place. The results?

These are not the same color. Wonderful. A solid four hours of combined dyeing plus prep time plus laundering, and I get this. I worked so hard to get an even shade, and I walked away with two! It must be that I'm being punished for something. Something like... not measuring my dyes right. Probably. Even if I swear I did!

Now I was a bit of a cheapskate here. It's almost a given that buying the powder over the liquid is cheaper because you get a greater concentration of product, however! I do see the benefits of liquid dye, namely that you don't have to worry about undissolved clumps of powder that can make your color uneven. I was careful about thorough mixing so I wouldn't have that problem, but that I had to consider it at all made it additional work. It's worth paying a little extra to eliminate the extra variable. Second thing: when dye is suspended in liquid you don't run the risk of accidentally inhaling it. From what I understand powder pigments are incredibly harmful if they get into your system in any manner, but most of all in your lungs. I had a respirator and gloves but again, it's just another thing I would never have to think about if I had just bought the liquid. Safety is always more important than saving a few dollars.

I would tentatively recommend using the dye fixative. I hoped it wasn't just another useless additional product Rit was urging me to buy, and it mostly does what it says. I thought I'd be sitting over the kitchen sink for forty minutes rinsing out extraneous dye, but the fixative made it so the water ran clear after only a single rinse. When I laundered the pajamas with detergent, I noticed a white rag got tinted the faintest lavender-pink, so the fixative doesn't make it completely bleed-proof. I don't know if it actually mitigates fading over time, as it advertises, but personally I find the fixative worth it for saving me time on that first wash alone. Remember that Rit sells two different fixative formulas depending on what fiber you're dyeing!

Let's talk about the fabric. It's from Joann's Super Snuggle line of flannels. It was nice and plush after I pre-washed it, and remained nice during and after handling and sewing. It lost some of that softness after I dyed it twice, though. The heat and chemicals and the poking and prodding of tongs must have been too aggressive. In its purest form, it's impressively opaque considering its stark whiteness. 

I probably won't buy from this line again. For one, most of the prints that aren't some variation of plaid read as childish or cartoonish to me. There's nothing wrong with whimsy of course, but colorful dinosaurs on fuzzy flannel makes it so I can't see their utility in anything other than fun pajamas. This entire project is result of me being drawn to a print but not wanting to wear it as outside clothes because the texture would just be wrong. Like, the below astrology print in royal purple and gold could be made into an amazing bowling shirt, if it were a cotton poplin or breezy rayon woven. As is, forget about it.

Second reason for not buying in the future, the fabric is too prone to shrinking. I made sure to pre-wash in the same temperature of water I'd be dyeing in to account for shrinking, but it shrunk even more in the dye baths. I can still wear them no problem, but the pants are just a smidge too short and they no longer cover my ankles completely. Third, I dislike that the bolt is only 42 inches wide. I really don't like having such a narrow allowance to work inside. It also means you have to buy a lot of length if you want the print to appear with a consistent direction. I bought 5 yards in 2 separate orders (3 yds and then 2) because I lacked foresight and ran out halfway. I think I could have done with 4 if I had bought it all at once. Damn you minimum order requirements!

All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with. I have a lot of practice sewing shirts and elastic waistband pants are no sweat, so it was nice to introduce some new skills like sewing piping neatly and screwing around with dye. I'd done it once before but I remember almost nothing from that time, other than that you should use gloves. I'm not keen on becoming an avid dyer because it's a lot of lifting, and pouring, and stirring, and most of all, waiting around. I prefer to be more active. But it's nice to have the option in my back pocket.