Badger Pyjamas x 4

Badger Pyjamas!, originally uploaded by soja.

More holiday makes. My friend and her family, especially her husband, are all a little badger crazy, so I wanted to make them matching pyjamas and include badgers somehow.

Unfortunately I didn't find any badger brushed cotton - not very surprisingly! After thinking about embroidery and applique, I decided to draw a badger and use my gocco to print onto fabric. I ordered some special fabric ink from Japan, via Etsy seller..... and printed onto some whit ecotton knit, so that if it didn't work I wouldn't have messed up the pyjama top. It seemed a bit of a waste to use scarce gocco resources for just four prints, but I was running out of time, so just got on with it. It worked pretty well, the prints are actually dark purple to match the bottoms.

The tops were premade white thermal long-sleeved shirts bought locally. I made the bottoms from some lovely soft thick brushed cotton (flannel) cut from a duvet cover, as I couldn't find any fabric by the yard locally. It worked out well - one side of the duvet cover was striped, I used this for the husband and son, the other side was sort of floral, which I used for my friend and her daughter.

For the bottoms, I used the patterns in Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. I made a pair for myself - they are a great shape and really well-fitting and comfortable. The only negative bit was that the sizes don't indicate the age of the child. I understand that children of the same age can be very different sizes, but a choice of "small/medium child" or "medium/large child" was too vague for me. I eventually found more information on the back of some simplicity patterns on the internet and used these measurements and shortened/adjusted the patterns, and crossed my fingers - after all, my friend is a "medium" size and so is her husband - but she is a bout 5'3 and he is probably about 5'10.... a bit different...

Anyway, I was pleased with how they turned out - especially the bottoms. I also used french seams, I think this is a much nicer finish, especially for nightwear, and sewed in a little tab at the back of the bottoms so they would be put on the right way round.