Pajama Shorts

Hello everyone. I hope everyone had a beautiful and relaxing weekend. Ours was a little crazy; our little Peanut ended up going back to the hospital. She's ok. She will probably be out by the end of today. Just a bad infection that she couldn't shake. So nobody worry! My gosh its stressful being a parent though! I keep telling everyone that I feel like every parent needs to go through a few experiences like this. Keeps you on your toes or something. Or maybe it just makes you appreciate your health! Its so sad seeing all the sick kids in there. Or seeing the TEENY TINY hospital gowns they have for babies. Breaks your heart. Although, that itty bitty hospital gown did make me want to make one for dress up for the girls or something....too darn cute and little! And she got mini hospital socks too! I mean COME on! Adorable. Anyway. I had to leave the little one and my husband there last night so that I could take care of her big sister and so that I could work today. So I decided that I needed to post today, just to do something to make the time go faster. I can't wait to go be with them again tonight. I love my little family and I hate being apart....even for a short time.

So remember the pants that I cut up to make the Fabric Necklace the other day? Well, I kept the top part of them (basically all that was left) so that I could re-make them into Pajama Shorts. I have had these PJ's sitting in my sewing box for a long time now, just waiting to be turned into something cool. They must have gotten too short or something, cause I really liked them. The fabric is so cute. So what better way to hold onto them than to turn them into something I can wear again! With Summer coming up I thought this was a great project for hot nights. Note, that these are Old Navy PJ's, so if you want to do this project yourself, you can go buy a cheap pair there or just use an old pair of some you already own. My inspiration for these is from a brand called Luva Huva.

They use all organic cottons and mostly do bras and underwear, but I saw these PJ shorts in their catalog once and have wanted them ever since. The extra fabric that I got to add onto them, I found in the remnants bin at Joanne Fabrics! And it was exactly what I wanted! How perfect is that?

What you will need:
An old pair of PJ pants
Some fabric scraps on coordinating colors
Needle
Thread
Sewing Machine
Scissors
Pins (all the basics)

1. Cut off the legs of your pants. Be careful not to cut them too short (unless you're into that) or you'll end up with booty shorts. I left about a 3 inch inseam. You may also want to iron them before you cut, so that you can cut VERY straight.

2. Cut 2 strips of your complimentary fabric (or fabric scraps) 24X3 inches long. You may need to adjust the sizing of your strips if your pant size is much different than mine. So what I did was I measured the width of the short opening (mine was 12 inches) and multiply it by 2 (because you have to account for the backside) so 24 inches. But 3 inches should be good for the width, no matter what.

3. Then pin the strips to the inside of the shorts and sew on. It will seem backwards the way you have to sew them together. So just make sure that you sew it, so that when you flip the complimenting fabric up, you will not see the raw edge. Its going to look like the shorts are rolled up in the end. Then sew the ends of the strips together.

See how I sewed it here? The green complimenting fabric is on the inside, but we are going to flip it out.

This is what it looks like unfolded

This is what it looks like rolled up.

4. Now turn in and finish the raw edge that is left of the green fabric. About 1/4 inch. Sew it closed but don't sew it to the brown shorts fabric yet.

See how the fabric is rolled up now and I am folding in the top raw edge of the green fabric to finish the edge? Sew the edge closed.

5. Now that the edge is finished, you can sew another line over it to "close" the top of the "roll up". Basically so that it doesn't unroll. Were going for a faux roll. It helps to iron before sewing it closed so that you can make sure everything looks straight so far.

Try to sew directly over the "finish" line that you made to turn in the raw edge. Then you wont see so many lines.

6. Now repeat with the other leg opening.

7. Next I cut a very small/skinny, but very long strip of fabric and sewed it to make a sort of "ribbon" for the top faux bow on the shorts. I cut it about an inch wide, then folded in and ironed the sides (lengthwise), then folded it in half (lengthwise) and sewed it closed. I had more than enough in the end.

8. Tie the ribbon in a bow and sew into place on the shorts. Trim excess ribbon.

Voila! Adorable PJ Shorts!



Ready for sleepy time!

I love the way these turned out. If I ever have a pair of old PJ pants that I can do this to again, I really want to. It was very fun and easy. And look how similar they are to the ones I had been lusting after forever! Awesome. They may not be organic cotton, but they are still green because I re-used them. In love right now. (And on a side note, my baby is all better and coming home from the hospital this afternoon. YAY! So all is well again)