Sew Annoyed

Last year, in a fit of inspiration (brought on by the stunning prices they want to charge for clothes a child will wear for just about 6 seconds before they no longer fit), I purchased some sale priced flannel and an Easy McCalls kids pajama pattern and decided to just make some instead. Shortly after cutting out the first set and getting the majority of the shirt sewn, my sewing machine died. I got a new one for my birthday, but by then (late Feb) it was no longer really flannel pajama weather, so I tucked them away with the thought that I would just make them the next year.

So it was that I found myself pulling out the cut pieces and my new machine this weekend and whipping up the first pair of pajamas. Only to find that something was decidedly amiss. Because while the pants turned out well in the front:

The process of getting them put together (and indeed the final result) revealed that all was not well in the rear:

Because in order to get them to go together properly, I had to turn the back pieces wrong way out. To say I was annoyed is to put much too small an emphasis on my thoughts at the time.

Still, they're pajamas. For an almost-4-year-old. He isn't going to care all that much and might, in fact, find it fun that he has trains pointing in AND out. (Note: putting them on this evening, he was convinced I had them inside out. So much for the thinking it'd be fun idea.)

So I pulled out the next set of flannel and took a good look at the layout instructions, figuring that I must have done something stupid when cutting out the fabric on the first set.

What you see here is the layout guide. It shows the fabric being folded right sides (that's the patterned side that should be seen on the outside of a garment) together. Then it shows you putting the pattern pieces onto the folded fabric face up and cutting them out. I checked, rechecked, and checked one more that I was interpreting this correctly and then cut out the next set of jammies.

Which also turned out to look like really bizarre chaps for toddlers.

I explained the conundrum to my sister, who is a much better sewer than I have any hopes of becoming and she immediately said the directions made no sense but that clearly one of the pattern pieces should be flipped over. Then she went on to say that at least I got a blog post out of it. I guess there's always that.