Rainbow bicycle pyjama top

Since I finished the bottoms for these pyjamas in August, my son’s been asking for a matching top. Pester power can be applied to sewing, it seems.

The fabric is the same organic printed cotton jersey I used for the bottoms, and an earlier T-shirt. It’s a fun design, but it’s printed slightly off-grain and it pilled disappointingly after one wash.

The pattern is from Ottobre Winter 2015, and I made size 110cm, with no alterations for this first attempt. The sizing seems fairly generous to me; these aren’t skinny fit pyjamas.

Now Ottobre instructions are pretty brief, with no diagrams. And although I’ve now made a few knit tops with neckline binding, this was the first one I’ve tried with a placket opening. (Am I right in thinking this style is often called a Henley?)

That part didn’t go so well. I just couldn’t work out how to get a neat edge on the ribbing I used for the binding without it becoming incredibly bulky. After two attempts at folding it under and ending up with a huge knobbly bit on the end I got grumpy and just cut the ends off.

When it came to topstitching the neckline, I wanted to make up for the fudging on the corners, so I used yellow and green thread in my twin needle to blend in with the different lines in the rainbow ribbing. (NB This is a really quick way to lose your sewing sanity.)

As with the top, my overlocker didn’t like dealing with four layers of the ribbing at once and chewed up the fabric. Would adjusting the presser foot pressure would help with this, or is four layers just too many?

Either way, my son’s pretty happy with the results and they’re getting some wear already.