Robot Jammie Pants (& Some Knitting)

I spent much of last week with a cold that left me even less enthusiastic than usual about sewing at night, but over the weekend I managed to finish the casing and hem my son's new jammie pants. Really, that doesn't take a lot of time. But I've realized that my favorite part of sewing pants is having sewn the pants. They have lots of seam allowances that need finishing. I don't like any part of making or sewing a casing. There's always a point at which I'm sure I've sewn them together the wrong way even though I've followed the directions--pants make my head hurt a little. And even the hems--leg cuffs are narrow enough that it's more slow-going than usual through the machine for me. But look--happy kid in new jammie pants:

What's not to love with robot jammie pants? I sewed these from a bought pattern, and if anyone is really interested I can look up which one. And truly, they're not difficult. I tried to get a little cute with how to tell the front from back and made a label by stamping my salamander stamp on some twill tape. I ended up hand-sewing it on, after I ironed the casing but before I sewed it.

It's crooked. By the time I realized it, I was ready to sew the casing. It takes me a really long time to iron and pin a casing and, well. I decided it was fine. They're jammie pants. Nobody outside of this house is going to see them, my son thinks it's really cool that he has a salamander tag on his pants, and I seem to be much more forgiving about my sewing mistakes than I am about my knitting errors. So the crooked tag stayed. I'll get better at it. This was my second try--I wanted to do this with my daughter's pants, too, but tried sewing it on by machine by zig-zagging over the edges, and the twill tape frayed and it fell off. (I settled for sewing some ribbon into the inside of the casing when I sewed up the hole for the elastic.) So by my third or fourth try I figure I'll get it just right.

I also finished my up-sized kerchief. (The first one I made went to my daughter.)

That looks much better. My 7yo (he of the new jammie pants) took the picture for me. I used the same pattern, just made the tie as long as I wanted it and picked up stitches along a longer bit of the tie, so I started with a wider base of the triangle. This was nice, mindless knitting, and when I was done with it (and the jammie pants), I popped onto Ravelry to find my next easy knit: Hitchhiker. (A symptom of this cold virus seems to be absolute, ridiculous fatigue. Garter stitch seemed about right.)

I plan to be back in a couple days with some progress shots of birthday doings--my daughter is turning three soon. We're having a small party, but there will be a little bit of craftiness involved.