Batman Pajama Pants!

I actually finished these a couple of weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to get pictures of my goofy awesome husband wearing them, so without further ado...

Ta-da!

If you're wondering why I made Batman pants for a 28-year old man, you kinda just have to know Matt. :) I brought home a bunch of flannel to make burp cloths when JoAnn had all of their flannel on sale for $2/yd (score!), and one of the prints was a cartoon-ish one with Bam! and Pow! speech bubbles all over it. Matt joked that he wanted pajama pants made out of it, and since his birthday was coming up, I schemed to make some for him. 

Only I was too late getting back to the store to get the fabric because they were sold out of it by the time I made it back. They did have their licensed prints on sale too (although unfortunately not for $2/yd), so I decided on the Batman. Okay fine, it was mostly out of selfish motives because Batman is really the only superhero I like. Anyway.

As with most of my sewing projects, I hit a couple of snags (pun only kind of intended). First, I realized when I took a closer look at the pattern that it was only women's sizing. Oops. I solved the problem by using the largest cut and then altering it a little by comparing it to some pj pants that Matt had in his closet that I knew fit him well. My second obstacle was that I chose the one week Matt was home with us (spring break) to make the surprise pants, so it took a little bit of creativity to find times that he was either gone or working outside or something so I could sneak to my sewing machine and put them together.

I finished the pants just in time for his birthday, and I'm SO pleased with how they turned out. BTW, this was the first time I'd actually pre-washed fabric (I know, I know), and I loved not freaking out about whether they would shrink in the wash. 

I wasn't crazy about the pattern instructions because 1) they were confusing, and 2) the online tutorial pics were made using a printed fabric and made it impossible to tell what was going on. I did like that it made a very sturdy final product, and it was relatively easy to tweek for my purposes (ahem, men's pants). I also love the trim. Oh, and I didn't do the button fly that it called for (that was the most poorly worded section of the instructions). And I figured for men's pjs it would work without buttoning it down. If I use the pattern again, I'll just omit a fly all together to make it easier on myself. I'm kinda lazy like that.

Final verdict on the pattern: worth using if you find it on sale (like my mom did) and you're patient enough to read and re-read the instructions. 

Final verdict on the pants: Holy Awesomeness, Batman!