Christmas Jammies

I would like to preface this post by sharing in the heartache for the community and families who have so tragically lost the loves of their lives this holiday season.  While I look through these pictures tonight of my sweet girls, I am again overwhelmed with my fortune in having happy, healthy children.  I know, too well, that life can be brutally short – a lesson I learned before my girls were born and a lesson that guides me and carries me through every action of every day.  The events at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday reinforce the fragility of each day.  As I navigate out of this new wave of paralysis, I hope you will join me in celebrating each moment of life and just… love, love with all that you have.

We have a family tradition.  The girls get to open one gift on Christmas Eve every year…and it’s always jammies.  Usually, I buy their jammies, but this year, it was one of the few things I put on my to-make list.  During one of the big fabric sales of the season, I picked up the fabric for their jammies: some super thick yummy knit for the girls’ pajama tops and Addie’s bottoms and festive fleece for the older girls’ pajama pants.  I used the Winter PJ’s pattern by Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop for the snug jammies and then I just used a standard pants pattern with elastic waist for the older girls’ pants.  The jammies sew up in no time.  I did them almost completely on the serger and I picked up a double needle for the top stitching around the collar and the hem on their tops.  The sizing worked out perfectly; I went up a size for Grace and it wasn’t too big, but will fit her for a couple seasons.

 After sewing Addie’s top, I thought that the plain red and white wasn’t feminine enough for her taste, so I hopped on the embellishment train.

I decided to polka dot the sleeves (and the pants!) with my oh-so-handy painting tool – the no. 2 pencil eraser.  I used fabric paint in silver.  LOVE the way the polka dots cheer the whole set up.  I covered Liv and Grace’s sleeves in polka dots, too.  It’s obviously easiest to add your paint before sewing the pieces of the garment together.  Cut the pattern pieces out, paint, let them dry; heat set, then continue with sewing the pieces together.

I also did a little screen-printing on their tops – Addie even got some bedazzling on her ice skater!

The girls took photo-shoot posing into their own hands.  The pictures are not what I was envisioning going in…and I couldn’t love them more – these are my girls, goofing around, giving me a hard time, shouting out ho-ho-ho or pretending to sleep, and wearing Santa hats, sometimes double stacked…being silly, sweet, little girls.

Love them!

Wanting to make some snuggly jammies for your little ones?  Good news!  You can get the Winter PJs pattern in the Peekaboo Pattern Shop.