Summer Sleepwear

It is hot.
This summer in Sydney (and a lot of Australia) has been ridiculous. We've had a record-equalling nine days over 35C - that's 95F for Americans - so far this summer and there's still almost a month left to go. It's too hot to do much sewing, or to wear too much. So light sleepwear is a must.

These two items are some of the few things I've made over the summer. Most of my old sleepwear is very much old and starting to fall apart. I also didn't have a summer robe for lazing at home during the holidays or on weekends when I don't feel like getting dressed just yet. So here are my Asaka Kimono and loose drape tank top nightie.

First up is the Asaka Kimono from Named Clothing. Named are a Finnish indie pattern brand who I know a lot of sewists have tried, but this was my first make. I actually bought the pattern during their pre-Christmas sale in 2015 (I bought 2 other patterns then too) but I only recently got around to making it.

The pattern is pretty straightforward without too many pieces. It does require a lot of fabric - and it isn't one where you can just lay the pieces like a jigsaw to save room. But none of the pieces are strange shapes, nor are there any awkward joins that need to be made. This pattern would be suitable for even fairly beginner sewists.

Because the fabric frays and isn't the greatest quality (although the print was too perfect a match for the pattern not to buy) I again did French seams. Of course I couldn't do French seams for the sleeves due to the vent, so instead I sewed those with a wider seam allowance and then rolled that under and topstitched it down.

I do think the tie belt is possibly a bit too long, which is my only complaint. Mine almost reaches the floor when untied, and that's after I managed to burn holes in one end and had to cut it shorter. Turns out the cheap $2 a metre fabric I bought at Spotlight is not friends with the iron, so this gown is just going to have to remain creased.

The nightie is the No. 13 Loose Drape Tank Top from Drape Drape. This pattern I have changed when I made it. The first and obvious change is in the fabric I used. As with most in the book, the pattern is designed for a knit fabric. However I'd bought metres of this black and white Deco-esque rose satin a few years back planning to make sleepwear. Seeing as I already had the fabric, I decided I might as well use it as I'd planned to.

The second change I made was to the pattern itself. The original in the book is much more draped at the side, down to the waist in the pictures in the book. I didn't want it to be that deep, so when I traced the pattern out I overlapped the two pattern pieces to narrow and raise it. The sides are still deep, but not so much that the nightie is about to fall off.

I didn't make any other modifications to this pattern, and like my Punto Drape Dress the pattern was incredibly easy to follow. It is made all in one piece, cut out on the fold and sewn up at the back, so it is very quick. It definitely taes twice as long to trace and cut the pattern out as it does to make it. It's a great pattern, and works in a woven just as well as it would in a knt. Again, recommended for sewists of all skill levels.

We've had a bit of a cool change come through this evening and tomorrow is going to be wet and a cool(!) 25 degrees, but the weekend is hotting up again, possibly to 40 (104F) on Sunday. So these lightweight sleepwear and lounging gown are going to come in handy for a few more weeks yet.

Pajamapalooza!

This is a four for the price of one post. A month back Sydney did its usual mid-Autumn thing and switched to cold nights. All my old winter pajamas were well and truly falling apart, so I really had to hurry up and make some new long-sleeve PJs. And so here is most of what I've done in the last month. Three pairs of pajamas and one dressing gown, all the sleepwear I need to get me through the cold months and the spring. As with my Sari Pajamas I've used Closet Case Files' Carolyn Pajamas pattern.

So I'll write about the PJs in the order I made them. First up were the long sleeve sari pajamas. I loved the luxurious look and feel of my short sleeve version, and had an enormous amount of fabric left over so had already decided to make these before even finishing the short version. The weight of the fabric also means they're trans-seasonal, so I thought making them first would mean I had a bit more time before I needed to make warm ones, but the weather had different ideas about that. Anyway. The only real difference, and I did this for all three pairs, was I left out the collar interfacing. The collar maybe doesn't look as nice, but I prefer the softer feel. Other than that, this pair again has french seams, and again I used the fancy embroidered selvedge in place of added cuffs on the sleeves and pants - it gives the exact same effect, and also means no need to hem!

When I was looking for flannelette for winter pajamas I decided to try and look for more muted, classic prints. So obviously I bought rainbow striped fabric with polka dots. It's very grown up fabric. Anyway, this pair I had a lot of dramas with. Starting with being an idiot and not checking how much fabric I needed and buying too little. The stripes being horizontal for the top's front and back and vertical for the sleeves and pants was not part of the original plan, but it was the only way I could get the pattern pieces to fit. And even then I couldn't get the pants pieces on properly so they have wide cuffs. You can see that the print doesn't match up for the bottom 6 inches. And I had to use a contrast fabric in black cotton for the waistband, pockets, collar, and facings. And I managed to screw up sewing these, putting the first pocket in incorrectly THREE TIMES! My brain obviously needed a break from sewing pajamas, so I made the spotted shift dress before embarking on my final pajamas.

For this last pair I managed to buy a less garish fabric and get the right amount of it! So it was doing better than the previous ones right off. I decided this time to leave off the collar, and just have a rounded neckline. So I made a back facing to go in place of the collar, and slightly reshaped the neckline to be a curved v neck. I did make one error, accidentally putting the buttonholes on the wrong side, but that's a minor problem. I also squared off the top for the two flannelette pairs, because it was easier than doing a curvet hem on the thicker fabric.

And last but not least, the dressing gown. I made this after the long sleeve sari pajamas and before the flannelette pairs, because we had some big storms come through and it was horribly cold and this was the quickest thing to make. The whole thing was made in a few hours, and then I could be cosy inside while it rained for three days straight. I didn't use a pattern for this, instead I based it off a summer weight cotton kimono I bought in Japan a few years back. It's very simple, two rectangles for sleeves, trapeziums for the back and two fronts, and giant pockets. I then used some of the leftover for a shawl-ish edge/collar (I'm sure there's a proper name for that bit) to give it a finished look and also to be nice and warm around the neck.

So I think I'm done with sewing pajamas for the time being. I do love the Carolyn pattern because it is easy to make and looks great, but I'm looking forward to doing some different projects now!

The Carolyn Sari Pajamas

Almost all of my pajamas have either fallen apart or are on their very last legs, so when Heather Lou of Closet Case Files released her Carolyn Pajamas pattern recently it was perfect timing. And when she decided to have a pajama party in early March it was a good motivator to actually get them made quickly!

The pattern is very much a classic style of pajamas, and are very timeless and well designed. They also have pockets in the shorts! The pattern had a breast pocket, too, but I decided to leave that off this time, and I only put four buttons on the top instead of five because I only had four of the buttons I used. The fit is relatively slim for pajamas, so they look quite elegant, although if you're a person who prefers loose fitting PJs you'd probably be best to go up a size, especially on the shorts.

The fabric I used is actually a sari, which was given to me by a friend who knows how much I love to sew. She sews a bit too, and had been given the sari. but couldn't work out what to do with it. I didn't have any ideas either, because while it's a beautiful teal colour the fabric is a little thin so might not be the best for clothing. But when I saw the Carolyn pattern, I thought this would be perfect for it.


I made use of the embroidered edges of the sari for the cuffs of the shorts and sleeves. This meant adjusting the pattern slightly, by extending the length of both the shorts and sleeves so that the embroidered section formed the main part of both. I cut the sleeve just slightly too short, though, and ended up sewing some of the embroidery into the armscye rather than having it start just below, but that's a minor detail.

Because the sari fabric frays like crazy, I used french seams throughout. I found they helped the sleeves to set in better, which was great because I normally hate setting in sleeves (if a genie gave me three wishes setting in sleeves perfectly first time every time would be one of my wishes). I also hand finished the facings so that there wouldn't be visible stitching lines.


I had one hitch when making these - I discovered I had no elastic for the waistband! I also didn't have time to go searching for some, so I looked at what I could find when I had to go to the supermarket. Because it was a small supermarket they only had 6mm elastic.But Heather Lou had posted about different waistband finishes, including multi-channel elastic and waistband frills, so I decided to try out both with my narrow elastic. The picture on the right shows my double channel elastic waistband with top frill (as well as a close-up of the embroidery detail), which I actually really like and will probably do again. It's great when an error turns into a feature.

Overall, I really liked both the pattern and the final result. The instructions were nice and clear, the construction very smooth. Even with doing french seams, the pattern was very quick to make. This time I only made the shortsleeve and shorts version, but there's also long sleeve and long pants, which I plan to make as well with more of my sari fabric. But it's still very warm weather here even though Autumn has started, so I've probably got a bit of time before I need long-sleeve PJs.