This was a sewing therapy project. That’s therapy from sewing sort of project, not sewing project as therapy for something else.

Oh, have I ever talked to you about my therapy projects?

Those are simpler project I go to when I get frustrated or mess up with my sewing, so as to get something done right and move in the right direction again. Currently, I don’t have many patterns to which I can do that as a straightforward project, so “simpler” is still a bit relative to including some fitting and/or design. That was the case with this project as I altered a pretty good scrubs pattern I had fitted for myself.

I’ve already made a couple of pairs of scrubs for myself in slowly replacing the sleepwear in my wardrobe. I wanted some variety so I opted to go for the more traditional shirt top this time. However, I don’t have such a pattern in full, with the pointy collar that I’m not a fan of anyway, so I thought I’d go for the mandarin or band collar top instead. It’d be just like my dress shirt style I’m after. I’m still perfecting the pattern fit so it doesn’t wrinkle on the front shoulder near the outer shoulder bone tip that you see in most men’s dress shirts when they wear it. But for pyjamas and flannel with a little stiffness, I’m close enough to give it a go. It’s fewer layers on the shoulders compared to the pointy flip over collar, and would keep my neck just a tad warmer being a little higher. That, plus it’d look classier, in my opinion.

So off I went with a flannel Transformers print I had gotten in New Orleans for about $10 in Wal-mart. I still haven’t gotten over how Wal-mart stopped selling fabric in Canada a few years back. So many good fabrics so cheap! I used generic buttons as I decided I wanted to do a button band to cover them, in a slightly different way than I had been doing with my dress shirt prototypes. I also finished the edges differently, with flannel being good enough I could serge finish an edge and just turn it in. I learned quite a few new things and relearned some old things like putting buttons and holes with my machine, as it turned out. So much for the generic sewing therapy project!

What came out is below. It wasn’t possible to match patterns across the seams with the quantity I had so it’s not nice that way. However, I’m hoping people would notice the style more than the lack of pattern matching craftsmanship. I hate matching patterns anyways. I just try to get key pieces to be in full view in key spots, if possible, like on the chests where the yokes would be, or columns going down the front or side of legs, etc.

I’m pretty happy with the results and am ready to move on now. Oh, from what, you might ask. Flash outfit for running a half marathon. Critical error not recoverable in a day with the event today. Oh, well. Always next year… or more likely fall for bus racing. I was just upset I couldn’t get it done this year because the weather was perfect for running in such a suit. I’ll probably have to wait 10 years before I get the right weather again given this is Halifax!

And yes, Chinese silks and/or brocade versions will be coming in the fall when it’ll be cool enough to wear full PJs to bed again.

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