School Project - Pajama Pants

I am currently taking sewing classes at a local community college to get my A.A. in Fashion Design. I am super stoked about being in school for this. I tried college right after high school and it didn't work out. Then I tried college again about 4 years ago. Again... didn't work out. Now, I have finally found something that motivates and actually excites me to be in school. If you would have asked me two and a half years ago if I even wanted to own a sewing machine, I would have laughed and told you "That is what the store is for, and thats why my mom has a sewing machine. So I don't have to."

These pajama pants are the first thing that I made when I started school. I knew a little bit about sewing and could have probably opted to skip the uber basic sewing class. But, I wanted to start at the ground and work my way up. And in all honesty I am very glad I have that foundation now.

For these pants I bought straight up no stretch simple cotton fabric. I'm not a big fan of it because it is not as soft as I usually like, but for the purposes of learning it makes everything a lot easier. You do not have to worry about the fabric slipping against itself because of the texture, and it doesn't stretch, so there is no worry about the stitches getting weird. The pattern that I bought was a basic McCalls or Butterick pajama pants pattern. No zippers. No elastic. Just a drawstring. Looking back now I realize pajama pants are probably the most simple piece of clothing you can make. This being my first try at making something though it was a very slow process. I think I took about 24 hours total work time to get these done. Now, I could whip out a pair of these from zero to done in an hour to an hour and a half.

With these pants I learned a lot of basic sewing techniques. How to use a serger. How to fit a pattern to make sure its going to fit right BEFORE cutting material. What the different markings on the patterns mean. How to make sure your material is straight. And about a million other very simple very basic things. I never knew that tearing material (such as cotton) across the top will actually give you a straighter edge than if you cut it. Weird huh?