DIY No-Pattern Pajama Pants!

A few years back, my husband and I decided to start the tradition of giving each other and our kids pajamas on Christmas Eve. Well, one day before Christmas this last year, as I was at the fabric store, I found some great OSU Beavers and Pittsburgh Steelers fleece fabric. When I saw the fabric, I could just imagine my husband and my son in matching pajama pants sitting by the Christmas tree opening presents and looking as cute as ever. I decided at that moment that I had to make them pajama pants. Seeing as how I am one of the most inept seamstresses around, this was quite a challenge. Or, so I thought. Because of the challenge that was presenting itself, plus having a new baby, I ended up not getting them done for Christmas, sadly. I was too intimidated to do it without my mom's help and she was busy herself and unable to help (although we both had the best of intentions to do that). So, my husband ended up with store-bought plaid pajama pants and my son got an adorable Mickey Mouse robe. Fast forward nearly 2 months, and I finally became brave enough to try making the pants on my own. To see how to make these yourself, check out this blog. And this blog. They are pretty much the same, but seeing the pictures for both helped me a lot.

Photo from Pinterest

If you aren't a seamstress - don't stress too much. I am not either. Seriously. I cut crooked, I can't read patterns (although my mom has tried to teach me countless times), and I don't know how to do beautiful, fancy stitches with my sewing machine. All of that to say, if I can sew these, I'm fairly certain anybody can make them...as long as you have a sewing machine. Well, you could make it without, but I can't help you there.

One thing that both of the blogs didn't spell out for me and, because of my ineptness for sewing and post-pregnancy-tired-mama brain, I needed spelled out, was that you have to cut each leg out (duh, I know.). Anyway, because of this and how wide my fabric was, I was able to lay my fabric down, with the ends of the fabric meeting in the middle so I could lay the folded pajamas down, cut and then flip them over onto the other side of the fabric and cut again.

Once it was all cut out, you should have two pieces similar to this while they are still folded up.

At this point, fold them right sides together and sew the straight side with both legs.

Then comes the other part that was confusing for me. Turn only one pant leg right side out, and then put it inside of the pant leg that is still inside out - so the two legs have the right sides together. To understand this better, read the blogs posted above. I didn't take a picture, because I personally didn't think the pictures helped. I just had to re-read the statement a number of times to get it. Once you have that figured out and you have the pant legs together, sew the "u" shape that the fabric is in. Then, you are almost done! Woohoo! All you need to do now is to add in the elastic!

Because I was sewing fleece, and you can't really iron it as the blog above describes, I just folded my fabric, pinned it and started sewing.

I was not careful to measure or anything like that. I just eye-balled it. And that seemed to work just fine. Be sure when you start sewing, that you leave an opening for the elastic to go in. 

To make it easy on yourself when adding the elastic, use a safety pin. I didn't do this and it took a whole lot longer to get the elastic through it. Seriously. Do yourself a favor and use a safety pin. Once you get the elastic all the way through, try them on and pin the elastic where you are going to want it.

At this point, I sewed my elastic together so that it would stay where I wanted it. Because it was going inside the pants, I wasn't worried about it looking pretty...just get it sewn so your elastic stays secure.

After that, I hemmed up the pants and the sewing project that I feared for too long had been concurred, and looked pretty good for that matter.

There he is folks, my husband, peacocking. :)

This project, literally, took less than an hour to make! So easy, quick and fun. I may never buy another pair of pajama pants again! By the way, I did follow up by making my son the same pants. He looked pretty adorable his ownself. As I made the pants for my son, my husband recorded it so I can have it on my upcoming vlog, hopefully. But, as a teaser, here is my adorable son in the pajama pants I made for him. I apologize for the fuzziness of the picture. Getting him to hold still was too much of a challenge, so I give you a picture of fuzzy-Cade.

If this was not helpful enough for you to get started, you'll have to check out the video blog when it's done. That'll show you step-by-step with movement. :) I'll keep you posted for when that happens. Until then, don't be afraid to try something new! You may just surprise yourself.