Here’s the deal: I’ve been holding onto my tattered pajamas for several years now. I thought, why not make a little pajama top for my toddler?

My challenge this week has been T-shirts and sleeves. A toddler pajama top would be a good start. Sleeves are terrible things to sew– at least for me– and after 5 tries (yes, 5…that’s 5 ruined, unsalvageable pajama tops) I finally made something that ever-so-slightly resembles a “shirt” and the finished product is at the bottom of this blog. (I used old bed sheets to practice– wouldn’t want to waste my adorable strawberry pajama fabric, albeit old).

I have a LONG way to go in terms of improvement– especially for tricky things like sleeves.

I really learned a lot this time like how to position a pattern on fabric, how to sew sleeves etc. It was my first time using a pattern– (I found a free toddler T-shirt pattern on the internet and printed it out). I usually just look at clothes or use old clothes as my “patterns”.

My old pajama top:

Attaching the pattern to the fabric:

The “toddler sized” cut outs:

Ugh. Getting. The sleeves ready to be sewn. Very easy to mess up on this part.

Finished product:

(Front is slightly shorter than the back). Also, I used random pieces from the old pajama shirt to get the most out of the fabric (didn’t have much extra) so it looks weirdly pieced together but I like it– and I managed to do it with what I had on hand– so 100% free!

I think I got the basic idea. Now to refine my skills and off to bed for my sleep deprived self. 🙂

By the way, you can get the free toddler T-Shirt pattern on the blog “Made Everyday.”