I mentioned in my previous blog post that I had a lot of this lovely viscose in my stash from Abakahn after
my friend Charlotte talked me into adding it to my basket. I was glad that I had when my Lapwing trousers turned out so well and was eager to make a pyjama top to match.
I wanted to find a sweet little camisole pattern that wasn't going to be too time consuming and would match nicely with the bottoms. I thought there must surely be a free pattern that caught my eye somewhere on Pinterest but after a few hours of browsing I still wasn't coming up trumps.
Charlotte came to my rescue again when she said she would post me the McCalls 5989 pyjama set pattern. This set features a cute camisole you can make in various lengths as well as a PJ bottoms/shorts and robe.
I was excited about the camisole as it's low neckline added a bit more interest to the garment than the free vest top patterns I'd seen online. The bottom half of the top is quite wide and flowy for super comfort but is pulled in at the underbust with an elasticated drawstring. There is also some sneaky elastic encased in the top back hem which helps stop the top from shifting around and the straps to stay on my shoulders.
Charlotte warned me that she only had the larger size pattern and I may need to scale down... Okay so this wasn't going to be the super quick make I had hoped for but at this point I was pretty excited that the camisole had a little backstory to it and I knew it would be well worth the effort.
So I made a toile out of really lightweight fabric to see what alterations I was going to be faced with. As predicted the main problem area was the bust. It was just tooo big and the slightest bit of movement was going to result in some serious nipslip. To combat this I pinned out the areas of excess fabric in my bust. This was both at the curved edge of the cup and also at the under arm. The cups are not shaped with darts so you rely mainly on the gathers created by the drawstring for shaping. This makes the fitting process a bit more forgiving as you can manipulate how the fabric sits on you once the garment is finished and the drawstring is inserted.
Once I'd drawn these little triangle chunks onto my toile I coped them onto my paper pattern and then pinched out the excess paper and smushed it all down flat. Although I did love the deep neckline on the pattern, due to its loose fit nature I decided to increase the length of the centre front seam for a little more modesty.
I had also found that there was a little bit too much fabric along the sideseam below the underarm. I pinched out about 1.5cm on both the top back panel and the top front side seams to avoid this puffing out so much.
Although I quite liked the length of my toile, I was really keen to make sure this camisole was part of a set alongside my Lapwing trousers. I made the length of the bottom pieces 12.5cm shorter, simply by cutting this off of the bottom, as the extra length with the baggy trousers would have made me look a bit swamped!!
Lastly I made an educated guess when my straps kept sliding off my shoulders that this meant I needed to stitch them a little closer together on the back panel. I moved them in by 1.5cm and hoped for the best.
I'll admit I was in two minds as to whether my alterations would achieve the fit I wanted, but I had sooo much of this fabric I leapt in with my second attempt.
There are some things to be mindful of when constructing, mainly I would advise to be super super careful when pressing and sewing the hem on the top of the cups that you don't stretch it out. The nature of the cut means that the neckline falls on the bias and is very easily stretched out of shape if you apply too much heat/pressure... and then even after all the fitting alterations you could still end up with a gaping issue!
I cut the elastic for the back a little shorter than the elastic guide too and it didn't really have an awful lot of grip on my toile. I don't think there's a right and wrong, I just held the elastic flat to my back without stretching it to get a rough idea of how long it needed to be... you don't want it cutting off your blood circulation but you may as well make the best use of it. The elastic is fed into the hole and then secured with stitches at the ends.
The side seams are pressed forward, which seems a little odd, but this helps when sewing the hem on the underarm area of the front pieces. the edge is slightly curved so you have to pay a bit of attention when easing in and folding under.
Making the casing for the drawstring is probably one of the most satisfying parts of the process. You sew the bottom to the top using a 2cm seam allowance and then fold under the seam allowance, stitching another line along the fold. There's a little gap at the centre front seam that you leave open so that you can feed your drawstring through.
The drawstring is a piece of elastic the same length as your back piece, but with two strips of the fabric attached to either end. This is the best of both worlds! As means you can still tie a super cute bow in the centre, but have the elastic to allow for movement and comfort.
So there you go! One matching PJ set ready for however long this lockdown lasts! I had fun making pattern alterations and making something designed to my ideal. I love the backstory of mine and Charlotte's friendship that is stitched into the very making of this! She sent me this cute little tag to sew in which I absolutely love! Social distancing cannot beat the sewcialists!
Until next time,
x
Location: Endcliffe Village
Currently listening to: Lie To You, Franc Cinelli
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