I said I would and look! I actually did: I made summer pajamas from a bunch of thrifted tees.

And the kids actually like them! There is no Iron Man or Perry the Platypus or Elmo or whatever character they’re into this minute in sight. I’m not against the odd licensed character, but I cannot deal with the weird, plastic, pajama fabric they are printed on. When they’re new the fabric feels like slimy alien skin, and after a few washes it turns into pill-y, old, molted alien skin.

Obviously I have some issues with kids’ pajamas. Not these suckers though! They are all 100% handmade from 100% second hand clothes.

Here are all the sewing details:

fabric: thrifted tees pictured here

pattern: For the shorts I used the sleeping johns pattern from Growing Up Sew Liberated. I made the sleeping johns a few years ago and they still fit my daughter. So the fit is obviously pretty generous. My 7 year old daughter is wearing a size 5T, my 6 year old son is wearing a 4T, and my 3 year old son is wearing a 3T

The shirts are made with Rae’s Flashback Skinny Tee pattern. The only time I actually followed the pattern was for the gray shirt in the middle. For the other two shirts I used the pattern more as a guide. The tank top is far from perfect, but it works for pjs.

sewing: The shorts went super fast and were not a problem at all. The shirts were a bit more fiddle-y, because I chose super soft, super thin material. My sewing machine prefers to eat material like that rather than sew it. Arg!

The plan was to have two pairs of pjs for each kid, but only the youngest got two (the second pair is pictured above). For that gray striped top, I used Kristen’s Flashback Tee –> Tank Top tutorial and blatantly copied her style while I was at it. There are two more pairs of pjs in the works. Both are half done, but I think I hit a pajama making wall. Maybe I’ll climb over it this weekend :)

Have you been following along with Jess and Kristin’s Vintage May? These two bloggers teamed up to show off handmade vintage-y kid’s clothes all month long. Many amazing bloggers have been making many amazing garments and tutorials too.  Today, hey, it’s me! Head on over to skirt as top to see more of this button up shirt made from a vintage sheets.

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While I was making this shirt, I started to think of all the other things I’ve made from vintage sheets. I used to be skeezed out by second hand sheets. All that yardage in awesome prints, though? Hard to pass up.  To over come my heebie jeebies, I wash the sheets a few times with extra hot water and let them dry in the sun. When you iron the sheets that thrift store smell appears again, but I power through knowing after I sew whatever it is I am making, I will never iron them again. All the projects above are new sheets made from old sheets (and one quilt). I’m a genius I know. We have extendable beds from Ikea, so the kids’ beds are all different weird sizes.

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Clothes from vintage sheets are much more fun. I think pajama pants from sheets and pillowcases are my favorite, but obviously I like a good floral tie too. More boy’s button up shirts from flowery sheets are definitely in my future.

My kids wore their winter pajamas most of the chilly spring, but then it got hot all of a sudden (then disgustingly hot) so I had to whip up some summer pajamas super fast.

So I made one from a pink stripey pillowcase…

and one from a yellow stripey pillowcase. There is a stripey green one in a thrift store somewhere waiting for me, I know it. So no trifecta of cuteness.  But the baby did get some little man pjs from an old sheet.

For a while there my children were barely clothed during the day, much less at night, so the pajamas were forgotten. But now that the heat has stopped being so punishing (at least for the moment) the pillowcase pjs are back in rotation.  Speaking of summer, Mary Frances has a lovely post about midsummer, go see…

I’m going to post a round up each day this week of inspiring handmade clothes and tutorials for fall and winter things too. The schedule should go something like this:

• monday: fall and winter clothes
• tuesday: coats, hoodies, sweaters
• wednesday: warm things for baby
• thursday: hats, mittens, scarves
• friday: halloween costumes

If you have a tutorial that you particularly love and it fits (pretty much) into one of the categories above you can email me (elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com) and I can try to fit it in the post or you can save it and put it in the comments on the day of the post-subject it fits under. Get it? I’m trying to keep it so we can all use these inspiration and tutorial posts as reference next week when it’s so late we have to choose between thinking and sewing. So tell us all the awesome clothes tutorials you know in the comments and email me the rest. And if you haven’t signed up yet, what are you waiting for?

beautiful handmade fall and winter clothes

1. Untitled, 2. birthday party dress, 3. flannel pants, 4. SOLD Funky Fall Green Repurposed Wool Sweater 12 months, 5. pants pants pants pants, 6. check tunic dress, 7. Puppy pockets, 8. Green Fleece top for my daughter, 9. Snow and Holly bloomers

fantastic tutorials for fall and winter clothes

ringer shirt pjs (made with her own tutorial), pleated skirt, winter jumper, fleece lined pants, pieced shirt, patch jeans, henley shirt, short sleeve to long sleeve, go to dress

After a week (a week!) of nursing sick children I thought I would have a couple hours to sew on Saturday morning, but of course then I got it.  crap.  I had grand plans of conquering an actual pattern: simplicity 3835 (any advice welcome–has anyone lined this? can anyone tell me how to line this?).  There were some angry and rushed attempts at garment making in high school with very homemade results, but now I’m ready to learn for real.  These pj pants are from Amy Butler’s book “In Stitches” and were dead easy.  Like sewing drawstring bags for your legs and about that flattering–when she says wide leg, she means wiiiiide leg.  I have been meaning to make them ever since I found this fantastic sheet at a thrift store long ago. I think the idea of making pajamas from sheets came from soulemama.  And when you are wearing them it really is like you never got out of bed!  My sick self stayed in these pants all weekend long. I did manage one little project (from soulemama, the book).

another pair of pants! though much, much smaller and from a shirt.  There are many more of these planned for the summer months.  They are easy and comfy and just right for the playground.  I have grand plans for making my kids’ clothes too.  It doesn’t help seeing this and this and this.  But I don’t have a clue as to how to sew clothes (unless it resembles a drawstring bag) so mostly I’m just dreaming.