A Family Rainbow of Pajama Pants with Simplicity S8518 and S8519 Patterns

If your whole family is in matching pajamas in their favorite colors, you’re bound to get a photo like this. Don’t believe me? My kids actually HAD FUN taking these photos, didn’t complain about our yearly family Christmas Card photoshoot (yes I used these for our cards as well!!! Genius right? I’m all about simplifying the holidays), and the 2 year old kept asking if we could “take more photos in our pants” for days! I’m patting myself on the back.

Let’s rewind for a second. I have never been consistent with Christmas Pajamas. It wasn’t a tradition my family grew up with (my mom actually says “ew” to the idea of matching family pjs! haha), so I didn’t do it at first. I started getting some holiday jammies for my kids when they were young. But then I thought… why would I give them pjs matching a holiday that only lasted a month? So, being a practical lady, I gave them new matching pjs– minus the holiday print. Some years I decided they didn’t really need new ones and skipped it. Last year was one of those years, but then my kids had multiple “wear your pjs to school” days during December. I felt guilty. So on my list of 19 things I wanted to do in 2019, I wrote “make Pajamas for my kids by December 1.”

……..And guess who checked that box off? Your type A, goal-setting friend Katie Kortman that’s who! But, again, being Mrs.Practical (well…. I mean in most things, not all!!!) I wanted to make them appropriate for all seasons and not just Christmas. So I went with a FAMILY RAINBOW! I let everyone pick their color (or suggested a color… haha) and we came up with our own version of a rainbow. The”Kortman Family Rainbow.”

So what Patterns did we use to make this rainbow dream happen? Simplicity Patterns S8518 and S8519 of course! They’re affordable, and I can get lots of sizes in one envelope (or 2) so that it spans the entire family’s needs! I got mine at Joann’s, but you can also get them at Simplicity.com I chose this pattern because it had pockets unlike basic pajama pants. I also liked the button-fly, although I didn’t put any actual buttons. I just did a fake-out of it!

These patterns call for cotton non-stretch fabrics, but since it is winter a few of my kids needed warmer pants. I bought some fleece and figured I’d see how it went. I have a few tips I’ll share below for using fleece with a pant that has a button fly…

1. When using fleece its not essential to finish the edges.
2. Fleece stretches a bit so you can go down a size or use a slightly bigger seam allowance.
3. You can eliminate the “fly piece” (#3 on this pattern) and just do a faux fly by sewing it shut, as pictured here. (Don’t sew the fly shut until you’re done sewing the waist band though!!!)
4. You don’t need to interface anything!

I made three pair in fleece……

And three pair in quilting cotton!

And 3+3=

SIX!! I’m so glad I have enough people in my family to make a whole rainbow collection:) And so we could do silly photos like this….

I mean you can see the joy right? This photoshoot, and their excitement over these pajamas solidified my desire to make this a yearly tradition. I love this goofy family of mine! We may not always get along as well as in these photos, but the love is strong and the happiness is real.

For the tops I just bought plain white tees and painted an ornament on the kids’ shirts (since I knew my husband and I really wouldn’t want to wear ornament shirts year round!)

Okay! There are still a couple weeks left to make some Pajamas for your family, so get on it! You won’t regret it, and they sew up really quickly!

*Thank you to Simplicity for Sponsoring this post!

Go check my instagram for a fun family dance coming later this week!

#creativechristmas #pajamapattern #learntosew #simplicitypatterns