With all the Spring cleaning I’ve been doing, I realized I don’t have any summer pajamas that I like wearing. During the last pattern sale, I scooped up two patterns and ended up making McCalls 5248.

And here’s my version, made up in a poly chiffon from JoAnn. I was surprised, too. We’ll see how the chiffon washes and wears.

The pattern doesn’t call for elastic at the underbust but I added it to keep things in place.

I also added elastic to the back.

The photo above shows the inside of the bodice with interfacing and the wide elastic. Thinner lingerie elastic wouldn’t have done the trick.

So, the inside still looks decent but I got to the point where I just wanted this thing done and I didn’t encase the elastic or do anything to nicely finish the insides. You know that feeling.

The back elastic looks really raw to me but it does the trick and, again, my woe for not wanting to work on this any more than I had. It was supposed to be a quick project.

How did I adjust for my bust? Today is not brought to you by the full bust adjustment. Rather, I did a pivot a slide style bust adjustment. I knew I was going to be using elastic under the bust and I wasn’t going to be wearing this with a bra so I went for a different approach.

To pivot and slide a pattern, first you need what you want your final measurements to be. To do this, I placed the pattern over my bust and matched up the pattern apex with my own. It proved that I’d only need length below the apex, an interesting realization which I will play with on other garments.

To start, I grabbed some white twill so I could trace and alter onto the fabric and do a quick test to see if it was going to fit.

The photo above shows where I plotted my needed length. I traced the top and sides of the pattern as they were originally for the size XL (and honestly, I didn’t need that much width- I took about an inch off the width in the end). I started to connect the dots but then realized I still wanted the sides to match up so I held off on completing the new line- you’ll see it in later photos.

Then, I pinned the armscye corner and unpinned the rest of the pattern so it could swing into the new size I was creating.

I measured 2.5″ from the side and plotted that point on my bodice. That would be the point where I would taper the new under bust curve to the side seam.

Pivot time. Here I’m trying to decide how much to pivot.

And I settled on pivoting the side past where I drew the side line. In the photo above, I’m pointing with my index finger at the original side line (which I kept) and with my thumb at the new underbust line I had started to draw based on the amount of length I needed.

Above, you can see how all the lines helped me decide what the new pattern would look like.

This last photo is the new bodice pattern. I could’ve started with the L size and had enough room width wise. Luckily, all I had to do to adjust that was sew larger side seams.

Things I should’ve done and I should know better:

1. French seams but I opted for stitch and serge.

2. Baby hem but again serged. I hate myself for that.

3. Line the bodice with a stiffer fabric. I’m a loser baby and I’m sure I’ll kick myself for it later.

4. Cut a smaller back. Don’t I preach this one enough? Well, I had to take a dart in the back after the elastic was in because I measured the elastic to my back so that my front would stay in place so the back was poofy. All concealed.

5. I interfaced the bodice which I spent the most time handling but I could’ve done a gelatin wash on all the fabric to make it that much easier to manage.

The pretty bits:

The spaghetti straps. Pretty pretty.

The lace.

The fabric.

It’s all said and done and I’m proudly putting this into my sleepwear rotation.