Steampunk Lounge Wear

After the struggles with the corset I made for the the January HSM challenge, I really needed an easy project.  An alternate title to this post could be, I desperately needed something easy and completely not challenging to sew to boost my confidence (I thought this title might have been too long). 

Since my husband and I often attend Steampunk events with friends, I have always wanted some steampunkish lounge wear to wear when we are just hanging out and playing games in the hotel room.  Also something besides jeans to wear down to breakfast.  I live in mortal fear of getting breakfast on my outfit before I can even get to the convention.  I figured my lounge wear will basically be similar to pyjamas  and therefore should be super easy to make. I dug around in my stash and came up with the following stuff. I figure the grey flannel will make elastic waist PJ pants for my husband to go with his T shirts.  The brown skull flannel will make PJ pants for me and the brown cotton gauze will make a nice top.  The brown lace is for edging my pants and top. 

The pants went together really quickly and are basically calf length elastic waist pants.  I made them wide in the leg, since that is the way I like PJ pants and edged them with the brown lace.  I do my elastic slightly odd (or so I have been told) so I am adding a bit more detail here. I stitched a channel at the top for the elastic and then threaded the elastic through. After that I closed the channel and then I stitched through the center of the elastic while stretching the elastic to prevent the elastic from twisting in the channel.  If you look closely at the elastic, there is a seam running through the middle.  I do this trick with all my elastic waist bands, since I really hate it when the elastic twists. My husband's pants are basically the same except floor length and without lace. 

The top was patterned off of a favorite regular wear top.  I love this shirt, but I have completely worn out the fabric.  I took the top apart and figured using top as a pattern for the lounge wear would be a good way to test out the pattern.   The original top was a stretchy knit, but I figure the gauze is slightly stretchy as well and would work.  I modified the pattern slightly as the regular wear top had little puff sleeves gathered into bands at the bottom.  I thought this might annoy me if I ever sleep in the top.  So I made the sleeves slightly longer and edged them in lace rather than with a gathering band. 

One of the things I love about this pattern is that there is a seam down the center back.  The center back is slightly flared below the waist, which prevents the top from riding up in the back.   I am pretty pleased with how the top came out.  It is very comfy and I think will be a nice thing to wear in the mornings and when hanging out at conventions.  Now I just need to make a version for regular wear as well!