How cute is this fabric?! I spotted it at Purl Soho here in the city and just knew I had to make a pair of pajama pants for my mom who loves Brambly Hedge. Have you heard of Brambly Hedge? It’s a collection of stories first published in the early 1980s in the UK centered around the lives of little mice. It’s cute!

So that brings me back to this fabric, which isn’t actually based on Brambly Hedge. :) The above photo doesn’t really reflect the colors of this print, but the next photo does. It’s a Japanese cotton called “Nursery-Versery” and it’s designed by Heather Ross for Kokka (love her stuff!). I feel like pajama pants give you an opportunity to use prints you wouldn’t usually use on other garments.

And here they are, the grand reveal! The light in my apartment is the pits (and we had an overcast weekend to boot), but at least you get an idea. I used my pj pattern of choice – Kwik Sew 3602 – which you can see in my earlier “Pajama Party!” post.

When I first saw this mouse print I thought they were a bunch of different scenes, but there are actually just four (two that repeat on each row). Did you notice the chairs made of spools of thread? Hehe! Although I have to say, my favorite scene might be the little mouse holding the radish. I call him Milton Fitzwilly III (name credit goes to a friend of mine ).

Anyway…clearly the fabric cuteness is distracting me. Back to the pj’s! There’s actually not much more to say than what was said in my “Pajama Party!” post. This time around I shortened the legs 1″ to accommodate a shorter height.

When I first made this pattern in a class at Sew L.A. we were told we didn’t need to pre-shrink the fabric since the fit was loose, so I never did. This time, however, I decided to put the fabric in the washer/dryer because I’ve found after a wash my other pajama pants shrink to the point where they become a bit short on me. Not pretty, I tell ya!

Even though I pre-shrunk the fabric, I still made the legs an inch longer than my mom’s inseam measurement (that’s how you figure out what length you want your pants, if you’re just starting out!). I probably didn’t need to do that, but she can always roll the pants up a bit.

The waistband is done in the same way as my last pair of pj’s – elastic AND ribbon in the casing. The satin ribbon is also from Purl Soho. For more discussion about how I did this, read my previous post.

The pant legs are finished with French seams for a clean look. For the crotch seam I used a reinforced straight stitch and serged the edges. Yay for no-fray seams!

I’m so glad to have these done just in time for Christmas. It’ll be my last creation of 2012, even though I do have the fit of my tailored coat muslin just where I want it. For an update on that, I’m afraid I’ll have to wait until after the new year when things settle down a bit. Until then, I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2013! And thanks so much for reading along, folks. :)