diy |

For anyone keeping track, these are my 4th and 5th Sandpiper Swimsuits! If a pattern ain’t broke, don’t fix it I always say!

These 2 swim fabrics were from Sew Me Sunshine and are really nice quality – they have more stretch than the other fabrics I used, which makes them much easier to get on and off! I had originally wanted these 2 sets to be interchangeable with the pink and blue patterned set I made but the colours are all off – a good lesson about how things look in photos/ on screens is not always totally true to life!

I made the size 2, as I’ve made most of the others before (apart from the first one where I misread the size chart!), and I made the hem bands half width, as I’ve also done for all but the first one.

I also had to take them in at various points to make them fit okay, as I’ve done with the others – though the fabric does definitely affect the fit, I’ve found. For the top I took an extra 2cm off the shoulders and on the side seams an extra 1.5cm at the top, grading out to the normal seam allowance in the middle, then back to an extra 1cm at the bottom of the seam. For the bottoms I took an extra 1cm off the side seams to about 8cm down from the top, then graded out to the standard seam allowance.

Even though I now have 5 swimsuits, and have only worn any of them on my holiday to Thailand, I’m still tempted to make some more – I think I have a problem! But Fabric Godmother have a couple of nice looking swimsuit fabrics – and I don’t have a yellow one yet….

Last Summer (hence the title, lol) I made some more Carolyn Pyjamas for my holidays in Italy (which turned out to be during a heatwave, with the lowest temperature being like 30) and Thailand. I realised I had a bit of a gap as I had fallen out of love with my Grainline Lakeside pyjamas I made years ago.

I’ve made I think 4 pairs of Carolyns before (long sleeved cotton, brushed cotton, flannel, short-sleeved but long trousers cotton) but I had been a long time since I’d sewn the pattern so it was almost like starting from scratch! Looking at these, I could do with another full on flannel pair for the winter…

I made the size 8, as I have done with all the other pairs, though I’d not made the shorts before. Though they’re pretty much the same as the long trousers, but with shorter seams. lol! I can’t remember if it’s in the pattern (and I missed it every times before) or if I just picked this tip up after sewing a Helen’s Closet Gilbert shirt, but I top stitched around the facing, to keep them folded back as that has annoyed me about all the other pairs I made – they look like they’ve never been ironed in their life once you sleep in them once!

The blue fabric was from New Craft House, and is reversible. I decided to use it with the shinier side out, so the more cotton-y side was next to my skin as I worried it would make me a bit too sweaty to be the other way around. I did have to unpick a few seams, though, because I kept getting confused and sewing them with the wrong side on the outside.

The rainbow check was from Sew Me Sunshine and is really nice quality! Zero comments, it was just really nice to sew with and is really nice to wear in bed on a hot day!

Also I realised when I was editing these photos, and adding them to this post, that I clearly do the same poses all the time, lol! It wasn’t on purpose that I ended up with pretty much identical poses in both sets of pyjamas!

It’s funny how it feels like there are certain garments where I’m like ‘well I have the perfect pattern so that’s that’ and pyjamas are definitely in that category! I like the old fashioned, man-style pyjamas so why would I bother making a different one?! Though I guess it does make my blog posts a little more samey since I don’t make new patterns all the time (*cough* Archer shirt). Do you stick to tried and true patterns or are you all about the novelty?