DIY Christmas Pajamas – Sew pajamas with this FREE pattern

Hey y’all, today I’m showing you how to make knit Christmas pajamas as part of the Riley Blake Stitch’n Kitchen tour, and I’ve got a FREE pattern to share too!

As soon as I got the invite to do a Christmas tour, I knew what I wanted to do – cousin Christmas pajamas. The cousins loved the Good Natured pajamas I made them last year, and I love the photos, so it seemed natural to do a reprise. A quick look through the Riley Blake catalog and the perfect fabrics presented themselves – the Christmas knit basics. I used Holidays in all three colorways and Christmas Main in pink. Because the lone girl’s gotta have pink.

I’ve been meaning to do a raglan type fitted shirt, so even though it’s a little hard to see, that’s the type of sleeve on these. Which means you could totally do a contrast sleeve for fun. But with a short time to make 4 sets, I stuck to my assembly line sewing style and as few fabrics as possible.

Baby girl had fallen flat on her face the day we took these photos, but she was a good sport, even with her wild boy cousins.

Want to make your own? You’ll need:

• 1 1/2 yards of knit fabric. Because this is so fitted, you want to make sure that the fabric has 4 way stretch; this is part of why the Riley Blake knits are perfect since they have 4 way stretch and 5% spandex.
• 1/4 yard of rib knit fabric for the cuffs and neckband  – fabric should have at least 80% stretch for the neckline (that means you can stretch a 10 inch piece to 18 inches). You could use the same fabric as the body IF it has good stretch and recovery.
• 19 inches of 1 inch wide elastic
• The pattern.

The free pattern is in size 4T. If you need to make the pattern bigger or smaller, check out this post. To get it, click your preferred option below to get the free pattern only as a newsletter subscriber, or you can buy the full digital pattern in sizes 18M through 8 using the button below.

Please note that all my free patterns are licensed for personal use only (no selling items made from this unless you purchase it) and by downloading you are agreeing to this license.

Cut out two sleeves, a front, a back, two legs, a neckband, two sleeve cuffs and two leg cuffs.

Use 1/2″ seams and a stretch stitch unless otherwise indicated. See this post for tips on sewing knits.

Place a sleeve right sides together with the shirt front. The front edge of the sleeve is shorter than the back edge. Match raw edges and stitch seams. Repeat with other sleeve.

Stitch the sleeves right sides together with the shirt back, so that you have a piece that looks like the picture above.

Fold the shirt right sides together, matching sleeve seams. Stitch the underarm and side seams in one seam on each side as shown below.

Fold the cuffs right sides together, matching side edges (side edges are those at the sides when the text is right side up). Stitch. Roll up one side of the cuff over the other, wrong sides together, so that you have a loop with right sides out on both the inside and outside. Repeat this process with the neckband.

Pin the neckband around the neckline, matching the center front and center back, stretching the neckband to meet the neckline but no more. You’ll be pinning through 3 layers of fabric – two of the neckband, one of the neckline. Stitch, using a stretch stitch.

Repeat this process with the sleeve cuffs, matching the seam to the sleeve seam. It can be easier to stitch this small opening by putting the machine needle inside the cuff circle.

Place the two pants pieces right sides together and stitch the curved crotch seams with a stretch stitch as shown above.

Fold the pants to match the crotch seams. Sew along the inseam in one long seam, using a stretch stitch.

Fold the waistband down 1 1/4 inches, then stitch a casing for the elastic, leaving an opening to insert the elastic. Using a safety pin or bodkin, insert elastic and sew into a loop, then sew the opening in the casing closed.

Sew the pant cuffs as you did for the sleeve cuffs, then sew them to the pant legs as you did with the sleeve cuffs.

And then see if you can wrangle a little kid photo shoot!