One such tradition in our little family is our tradition of Christmas pants. Each year I make matching pajama pants for the five of us to wear on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I used to choose one overall fabric or one that had a boy color version and a girl color version for me. Then when I finally had a daughter, I branched out to choosing one fabric that the boys (Jared, Nolan, and Griffin) would love and a completely different, and very girly, fabric for me and Nora.
This year we chose this fabric for the boys:
It's so very Griffin. We call him our monkey boy, and he loves music. Previous years have reflected Nolan or Jared more, so the boys were happy to agree on this fabric this year.
This is the fabric for me and Nora:
There are a lot of other fabrics that would have been more fun or more of a reflection of Nora, but I already had enough of this fabric on hand. I decided to embrace the money savings and not get too grumpy about not having a more personalized fabric.
This one is pink and blue, a combo I love. Plus the ice skates remind me of the fact that Jared and I went ice skating on our very first date.
I always choose flannel so the pajama pants are nice and comfy.
I have a pattern on hand for adult pajama pants, and I have several different kid-size patterns. Pajama pants are VERY easy to make. I could make them in my sleep at this point.
This year I have a new tool at my disposal: my serger. I used my serger for the construction of the pants. It made everything go so much quicker, and the seams all have a nice finish.
I also added tags this year! In previous years, I just marked the back with a marker dot or hand-stitched a few stitches in a contrasting thread on the back waistband. This year, I had two custom-printed ribbons that I bought from Pick Your Plum.
Everyone but me got a tag that says "Handmade" with a little heart. I just used pinking shears to cut off a portion of the ribbon and sew it into the back waistband.
For Nolan and Griffin's pants (which are exactly the same size!), I used a fine-tip Sharpie marker to draw their initials in the hearts.
The other roll of ribbon says "Mother Mae i," which is the name of my Etsy shop. I ordered this ribbon months ago with the intention of making tags for my homemade items that I sell in my shop. However, I've been so busy with regular life that I haven't made anything for my shop in quite some time.
I thought it was time to start using that ribbon for something, so I used it for my tag in my pants.
Here are the completed boys' pants:
And the girls' pants:
I always just buy cheap solid-colored t-shirts to go with the pants or wear coordinating t-shirts we have on hand. I'm out of steam by the time I make 5 pairs of pants!
I tend to get a bit cranky about making all these pants around this time. It's so much work, and it doesn't even count toward my long list of Christmas gifts that I need to make. But then when I see everyone all snuggly in our matching jammies on Christmas Eve, it's totally worth it. Plus everyone wears them year-round after Christmas.
I always cut the kids' pants extra long and fold the hem a couple of times. When they start to get too short, I pull out the stitching, unfold the hem, and just put in a smaller hem or finish the edge. I just lengthened the boys' pants from last year to give them a little more life. The elastic waistbands still fit them fine.
This is just one of many Christmas traditions that we enjoy as a family!
Jessica
No comments:
Post a Comment