Once you get to the point of having a fully me-made wardrobe (speaking as I write this now in a 100% me-made outfit – including my bra and underwear, HA! I’m not wearing shoes just yet so I can still say that :P), that’s when you start getting to fill in the really fun gaps. For me, that means practical things made out of impractical fabrics. Like silk pajamas. Ooh la la!
I have wanted to make a new set of Lakeside Pajamas for quite a while now, since I really love my original tropical set and have worn them so much they are starting to look pretty beat-up. For the past year, it hasn’t been much of a priority because my basement apartment was WAY too cold to wear something so light and floaty to sleep in (trufax, I wore flannel pjs to bed up until I moved. In June.), but now that I’m ~solo livin’~ and have full control of the a/c (I actually turn it off before I go to bed now, which is the opposite of what most people do BUT WHATEVER I LIVE ALONE AND DO WHAT I WANT), which means light and floaty pjs are totally a go again! I have been wearing the HELL out of those tropical Lakeside PJs and loving them, but like I said, they are starting to look pretty ratty. Also, I wanted to try out this pattern in something that had a softer drape.
I made these over the 4th of July weekend, and part of the reason why I chose silk (other than what I just mentioned) was because I figured the project would keep me occupied for a few days. French seams and silk bias binding are both pretty time-consuming, and I was ready to work on something that would take longer than an afternoon. I dunno what happened – maybe the holiday got me all riled up over my freedom to sew my own clothes – but I definitely finished the entire set in a few hours. I even had time to leave my house and drive out to a party (at my old stompin’ grounds in Kingston Springs, no less) for a few hours, and STILL finish in time to wear these to sleep. To be fair, there are only a few seams on these things – and once you get the hang of the bias binding (which I have sewn so much in my day that now I can practically do it in my sleep), there isn’t really anything time-consuming about sewing them. Of course, they would be even faster in a nice cotton – but SILK. Omg I am so in love.
The silk fabric is a piece that I bought at The Fabric Studio here in Nashville during their closing sale. I snapped up a yard and a half, originally thinking I’d make a button-up shirt with it. It’s a lightweight silk crepe with a little bit of stretch, and absolutely lovely. I was all set to make said shirt with the fabric, until I realized I wasn’t crazy about the shirt pattern I had chosen (obviously no B5526, my spirit pattern :P) and instead decided to enjoy the silk fabric in the form of pajamas. I have no regrets about this whatsoever. I didn’t even realize how nice it is to sleep in fancy PJs until I owned a pair! I feel like I’m floating around the apartment when I wear these.
I think this is my favorite cut for a tank top – floaty and billowy when made in a silk, not cut on the bias (don’t get my wrong – I love bias-cut anything, but it does limit fabric choices as it turns prints on the diagonal *and* can eat up quite a bit of fabric in the process), and with that fun little peek of skin in the back. This top would totally be suitable to wear on it’s own with jeans or shorts, too, which was something I thought about while I was sewing it. That being said, I sleep in this shit pretty much every single night soooo silk-pajama-tank-as-normal-everyday-clothes still hasn’t actually happened yet 🙂
I made the size 0 in both top and bottom (my usual size for Grainline patterns) and the only thing I changed was to shorten the straps as they are a bit long for me (this is pretty typical for spaghetti-straps + me). All the seams – both for the tank and the shorts – are French seams. To sew the binding, I followed the directions in the pattern EXCEPT I reversed the order that you sew from the right side vs the wrong side. I attached the binding to the wrong side first, and then once everything was folded over, I topstitched from the right side. I noticed on my original pair that if you do it in the order that the pattern suggests, it’s hard to get an even line of stitching on the right side – where it shows. By finishing on the right side, I was able to focus on getting my topstitching even and accurate. This was super easy for the top, not as easy for the shorts… but I made it work.
Speaking of change, I also didn’t add any binding to the curved hem of the tank – just the top edge that creates the straps. For the curved hem, I just double turned a 1/4″ seam allowance and topstitched it down. I felt that the hem would lay better without the added bulk and weight of the bias.
The only snafu I hit with modifying the order that I sewed the binding was when it came time to attach it to the side seams of the shorts. I had to improvise to get everything to work out, and while I can’t remember exactly what I did – just pinning things down and looking at them was enough to figure it out. One thing I noticed on my first pair of Lakeside shorts is that the intersection where the front meets the back is a bit weak and has a tendency to fray, so I reinforced the area with a little triangle of stitching. Time will tell if I’ve actually solved that issue or not, haha.
Here is the completed set! I ♥ my silk PJs 😀
2 weeks into wearing, and I can confidently say that sleeping in silk IS THE JAM. Despite being basically the opposite of an elegant person, these sure make me feel classy as fuck 😉 What about you? Are fancy PJs worth the effort or a waste of expensive fabric?
LLADYBIRD 
