DIY Footie Pajamas

So I finally finished another project off of my list.  My super secret belated Christmas/birthday (okay, now belated birthday gift too) was a pair of pajamas for a friend. (And, if you're anything like me and it takes forever to finish a project in the limited free time you have, you're already late if you want to make a pair of these for Christmas.)

These new pajamas are not just any pajamas.  These pajamas are a one-of-a-kind pair of footie pajamas.

Excitedly awaiting cool nights to wear these awesome jammies.

For well over a year, I've known that my fiance's friend has wanted footie pajamas.  So on Black Friday, I found some material (the puppy paw print made sense at 4 am) and found my patterns.  There was no pattern for footie pajamas, but my mom discovered a one-piece pajama pattern, and my sister-in-law who is into costuming was buying a pattern for fabric shoes.  Perfect combination.

So I'll walk you through the process describing the alterations I made to the method.

I began with McCall's pattern M6251 (jumpsuit) and Butterick pattern 5233 (footies).

I cut out the pieces for Jumpsuit E from the M6251 pattern.  I cut all the pieces as directed, but cut the neck binding (piece 13) from the same binding material as the sleeve bands (this was done from a personal preference to have this instead of using the same fabric).  You do not need the leg band (piece 15) as you will be attaching the footies.

For the footies, cut the pieces for footies E (you do not need the fringe piece- piece 11 or binding).  On the back piece (piece 9), I did not cut the notch in the back, but rather cut straight up from the bottom piece since I would be sewing the whole thing together instead of having an open-backed tie shoe.

Follow the jumpsuit directions from 1-10.  I skipped step 11 because I  thought it looked nicer without the neck binding folded over since I used the rib binding.  So I just tucked the edges in and tacked them to the collar to give it a finished look.

Continue with steps 12-15.

Move on to the footies.  Follow steps 35-38.

With right sides together, pull the footie over the outside of the leg, lining up the center of the top of the foot with the notch on the front of the leg.  Sew this together.

Pull the leg so that the whole thing is inside out.  Sew the sole to the bottom, following steps 45-46.

After I was finished I put my feet in to make sure they would work (I wasn't sure what shoe size he was but was convinced it was bigger than mine).  I was a little nervous because the feet weren't really big on me, but the fabric had some stretch to it and it worked just fine.

Other words of advice: be careful not to stretch your ribbing too much as it doesn't recover well and will be permanently stretched (another option would be to cut a little smaller to allow for some stretching).

The only other thing I'd consider doing differently is putting something a little more slip resistant on the soles of the feet (my sister told me they make iron on stuff for this? Amazing idea!).


Perhaps the next pair should have a hood on them too.  Or an old-fashioned flap in the hind end, just for giggles.