While tracking down fabrics for wedding projects, I ended up with a couple duds. Fabrics ordered online turned out not to fit in with the color scheme once I saw them in person. I ordered a couple 3-yard pieces that looked like they might be a nice golden yellow, only to arrive quite orangey. oh dear. What to do with extra yardage of not-quite-right fabrics? Pajama pants, yes.

Following Heather Ross' pattern Pajama Pants for Everyone from Weekend Sewing, I sewed up these two pairs of pants appropriately, on the weekend. One pair for me, one for Brian.

The pattern is great. I thought for sure the pants would be too big as the cut pieces were humongous. I used 1/2" seam allowances rather than 3/8" to make them a bit smaller. Mine are size M and Brian's are size L. There is a lot of extra length built into the pattern. On the size large pants, after cutting the fabric 3 inches shorter than the pattern, I hemmed up another 3 1/2 inches. and Brian is 6 feet tall. I bet you can make pants for a 7-foot tall person with this pattern!

I added a couple details to these pants. One, a little fabric loop to mark the back of the pants and allow them to hang on hooks.

And topstiching. There's something about topstiching.. I want to put it everywhere. Typically, you can only put topstitching either on the inseam or outer seam of pant legs. Doing both just doesn't work.. it is too hard to get the other side through the sewing machine once the leg is sewn up. Jeans usually have the topstiching on the inseam. For my pajama pants, I managed to do the stitching on both sides of the leg. Who knows why I decided to do this, its not a necessary thing on pajama pants. The legs are wide enough to barely make it through the sewing machine. On Brian's pants, I topstitched the inseam and about 12 inches at to top of the outer seam.

topstitching on the outer pant leg

For future pants (or maybe an upgrade for these), a back pocket has been requested.

You know what? Pajama pants are extra comfy when you make them yourself. And matching pants for fiances - oh yeah. Anyone else planning on sewing these?

These fabrics are from Windham's Cheddar and Poison Green Collection.