Tutorial: Turning a womans shirt into 2 piece pajamas - Part 2: Shirt

Did you miss step one? CLICK HERE!!!

okay, so here is part two.
Lets grab the bodice part of the cut up shirt, and that RTW shirt you picked out from the closet.
You'll also need a rotary cutter, fabric scissors, pins, your cutting mat, and a serger (if possible).

Here I've laid the RTW Shirt on top of the cut shirt. You'll notice that the tip of my scissors shows where the deepest area of the V-neck lies behind the RTW shirt. This doesn't have any significance for the directions other than showing you where it's lying since you can't feel it like I could ;)


You're going to cut off a bit of the shoulder area b/c otherwise the neckline will be way too big for a childs head/shoulders.


We're going to cut the front panel. When you pin this area, just pin the top layer. It'll make cutting easier.
Pin around the 2 sides and bottom hem of the shirt, just a little outside to create an extra seam allowance.

You'll notice that I put a little diagonal pins at any of the "peaks". The corners of the shoulders, the end of the arm opening at the arm pin, the side of the shirt where it meets the hem, etc. That'll make cutting less confusing.

here it is minus the RTW


Cut out the top layer


Here's the front panel


Take the excess fabric and lay it as flat as possible, then lay the front panel down on top of it, lining the top shoulder areas of the front panel with the back neckline. This will save you from having to finish the back neckline.


Cut it out


Now that you've got your front and back panels, lets do the sleeves.
My little girl is VERY petite, so I prefer to give her sleeves a little less bulk to them, otherwise her clothes just look very oversized. That's why I shape her sleeves the way I do.
You can shape yours differently - however will fit your child the best.

This is how I make mine:
I make a template for my sleeves.
You take a piece of paper, line one edge up with the side seam.
Trace the bottom hem, and cut it out


Now you will lay your front/back panels over the paper. This placement is all about your judgement/preference. The side seam of the fabric you are about to cut will be the area of the sleeve that drops down from the shoulder over the bicep. So when you lay the front/back on it, you need to be sure that the angle of that side seam is at the right angle for your sleeve shape preference.
I prefer lily's sleeve to drop a little more than a traditional t-shirt.

So here is mine. Just trace the arm hole, then cut it out with scissors.


Use your rotary tool to cut the fabric out


Do this a 2nd time to make your 2nd sleeve, then this is what you should have


I had to remove a small tag from the side seam of one of the sleeves, so I ripped it out, then re-serged over that area to close it up again.


Flip your front/back panels so they are right sides together, then serge the shoulder seams.


Now you want to open up your shirt, so the inside is down, right side is up. You are going to open one sleeve piece and lay it right side down on the front panel, lining up the edge.


Serge the edge of the sleeve to the edge of the arm hole. (the center serged line is from closing the hole from the tag i removed. You won't have that most likely)


Finish the other sleeve


Sew up your side seams for the shirt and sleeve


Do the same on the other side


Turn right side out


You then hem the bottom of the shirt. I can't finish the hem on this right now, b/c my red thread is too thick for my machine and it keeps crapping out on me. So I just serged the raw edge for now, and I'll hem it up later ;)


So that's my tutorial.
As always, it might not be the best way. It might not be the prettiest way. But it's functional and it's a money saver. So I wanted to share how I do it, in case anyone else might be interested in trying.

Tutorial: Turning a womans shirt into 2 piece pajamas - Part 1: Pants

Hello! I made a pair of PJs for Lily last week out of a womans shirt that my mom wouldn't wear, so I thought I'd try it again, and post a tutorial this time.
Right now I'm only posting the pants section, b/c I have to do a few things today before I can start on the shirt, but at least this might be able to get ya started :)

First you want a shirt that is kind of big. I'd say a lg or xl. that worked well for my 12-18m pjs. You also need 1/2" elastic, and a serger will make your life easier on this, but it's not totally necessary.

Here is the shirt I used. If you notice, It has small seed beads and bugle beads along the neckline. I started by clipping the strings the beads were on and removing them all. This is important b/c you will likely remove part of the top of the neckline in order to downsize the head opening. When you do this, you will cut through those strings, and after washing or wearing, the beads will come off which can pose as a choking hazard.





Now you will cut the sleeves off. Cut as close as you can to the original seam.




It really helps to have a cheering section


Now go through your child's closet, and find a ready to wear (RTW) shirt that fits the way you want this shirt to fit. And a pair of pants (preferably not jeans, you'll see why) that fit the way you want the pants to fit (not necessarily cut, but inseam, length, etc)

Here's the shirt I picked


Then flip it inside out, while leaving the sleeves inside.

You will use this for your shirt pattern here in a few minutes.

Over on the cutting board, we have our sleeves, and our pants





Flip your pants inside out, leaving one leg inside the other. This will expose the "J" shaped crotch seam.


Move one sleeve off to the side.
Line the hem of the pants up with the hem of the remaining sleeve. If you need to add some length (like I did) you can just slide the pants up as far as you need to add. Ie. I wanted to add 1 inch, so i slid them up one inch.
Now pin just slightly above the waistband on your sleeve.
Measure your inseam and full length (top of waist band to bottom of hem). Write these numbers down if your memory sucks as much as mine does.




Now remember, at the top you have to allow room to serge your raw edges, fold over and insert elastic (or turn, case and insert elastic, if you prefer) so we are going to add about 1.5" to the top of the pants. Pin that spot too.




Now I used my other rotary cutting board (smaller) and used that as a straight edge. I used my rotary tool to cut in a straight line at the top pins



Grab that 2nd sleeve you set aside, Put the cut sleeve on top. Line up the bottom hem/lace as perfectly as possible. If they are very uneven, you'll have uneven inseams.
Cut along line (I used my mat as a straight edge again)


Grab the RTW pants you have out, and lay them back down. Line up the bottom of the jeans with the bottom of the hem (or up an inch like I did). You should still have 1 pin just a hair above the waist line.
Now line up the outside seam with one edge of the sleeves.
See that J shaped curve in the crotch I talked about before?
We're going to pin along that shape, leaving a very small seam allowance.


Cut it out


Clip the sleeves right side out, and you'll have this


Flip one sleeve inside out. Place right-side-out sleeve inside the inside-out-sleeve. This will make your right sides face one another, and allow you to serge the crotch seam without too much fabric to maneuver.


Serge around the crotch seam (it will go from center from waist to center back waist) being sure to line up the raw edges. Don't worry if the top of the pants (waistband) area isn't completely straight. If it's not, it's probably b/c when you cut it, it wasn't a perfectly straight line, and that's okay. You'll serge off some of that anyways.


End with this


flip right side out


Look at paper to find full length measurement from RTW pants. Mesure from hem/lace up to that measurement. Pin on front of both legs.


serge raw edges


pinch at pins, fold excess fabric into pants. Pin. This will be your casing.


Stitch around pants, leaving small opening for inserting casing.



Using a safety pin, thread 1/2" elastic through casing. Stitch ends of elastic together when you get it through.


Finish sewing casing closed.


You now have pants from sleeves :)

Check back soon for the shirt part ;)

eta: Here is the shirt section!!

Reconstruction: Complete!