The Paisley Package

For The Paisley Package, I made a Travel Laundry Bag, a Pleated Pouch and Pajama Pants. That was a great way to use up some of the leftover fabric from the Pajama Pants :)

Pajama Bottoms

I got the idea for these pajama bottoms from Amy Butler's book In Stitches, but there are plenty of free patterns on sites such as Burdastyle.

I feel that pajamas are the perfect gift for someone who likes to spend their weekends in lounge wear as well as for the person who has it all!
Regardless of which pattern you use, you will need about 2.5 -3 yards of fabric and matching or contrasting thread as well as some elastic or ribbon for the waist (optional), and you will end up with 4 pattern pieces: 2 pant fronts and 2 pant backs. For a drawstring, you'll also need a 60"x2" strip of fabric.

Join first the inseams, then the crotch seams, then the outer seams. If you are planning on using ribbon or a drawstring, make buttonholes about 3" down from the unfinished edge, about 1" apart. You can omit this if using elastic and leave a small opening in the waist seam to insert the elastic.
To finish the waist, fold the raw edge over twice and make sure the folded edge hits underneath the buttonholes. For making the drawstring crease the fabric strip lengthwise, then fold the edges towards the crease. Fold lengthwise to hide the unfinished edges and stitch a seam along the open side.

Finally, fold over the hem twice and stitch in place.

Planner Cover

To make my planner a bit more useful, I decided to add a cover  with plenty of pockets. This should allow me to not only have all my appointments and lists handy, but also related items like tickets to a show or coupons for shopping trips.

Materials:
2 fat quarters in matching or contrasting fabrics (not even half of each fat quarter gets used)
7” zipper
Matching thread

First I eyeballed how much fabric I would need for the shell by wrapping the fabric tightly around the closed notebook and deciding how much overlap I would need for the flaps that hold the cover in place.

With these measurements in mind I added my inner pockets: a zipper pocket on the left flap, and two card pockets on the right flap.
I sewed down the zip pockets only on 3 sides to create an additional pocket on the left flap.

To accommodate for the unusual closure of the notebook, I made openings for the leather strap on the back and the pencil holder in the front. These are basically just small rectangles cut out of the fabric, then neatened with a zigzag stitch. Measuring the height of the notebook,  I snipped the fabric right at the end of that seam and double hemmed the shell fabric between the flaps, then sewed the flaps to the shell, right sides together.

I plan on making at least one of these for Christmas, but with a regular notebook planner. So I won’t need the openings in the shell and will instead add some elastic to keep the notebook shut.