Faux Union Suit Pajamas

I have always loved how cute union suits are on little people so when I found this striped fabric, I knew that I had to give it a try. Thank goodness I did because this might have been my favorite project yet! It helps that my boys like them as much as I do! In fact, my middle son  was so taken by his pair that he refused to take them off. As much as I hated hearing him tantrum, I can't say that my ego wasn't stroked a little. :) 

I was lucky enough to have a couple knit footed pajamas around the house already to use as a basic pattern. If you have a snug fitting pair already, just turn it inside out and place on your fabric and cut out your pattern pieces. The size that I didn't have around, I used a top and bottom set and measured the torso length to make sure it would fit the same.
After cutting out your pieces, they will look like this:

Besides your knit fabric, you will need these:

Start with your long strip of fabric. This will be used as the trim for the neck and cuffs on the arms. My piece was about 20 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide.

Fold in half and iron.

Then I added the strip to the cuffs of the arms.

Be sure to do this to both sleeves.

Set the sleeves aside and work on the main body. Be sure to line up the stripes when sewing your pieces together.

Attach sleeves to the body...

Then add the diamond shaped piece to the crotch.

I decided that it would be easiest to add the faux flap to the body before I sewed it further so I took my two squares and sewed them together. First (and not pictured) I cut a piece of interfacing in the same shape and ironed it onto the back of one of the squares. This helped stabilize the fabric when I sewed in the button holes. It also helps keep it's cute little flap shape while my boys wore them.

After sewing, turn it right side out and iron. Make sure to fold in the open end and iron in place.

Place the flap about an inch up from the crotch and pin in place.

To make sure I didn't sew on my cute little flap, I pinned it onto the body.

Once I had my flap secured, I folded down the body (making sure to match up the stripes) and sewed it together along the edges.

Sew up the right leg.

Now put in your zipper. I have a zipper foot that made it easy to sew on.

Make sure that as the zipper goes down from the chest to the left leg, that you have it run along the last edge of the diamond piece in the crotch.

With ends folded in, sew on the neck:

My machine sews button holes (ignore the spelling error in the picture below) for me. All I had to do was mark where I wanted them, adjust my machine, and sew them in. I am totally spoiled. I hope you are, too.

Next are the feet. I am not going to lie, I HATED sewing these in. All four times. If you want to skip this part, just put more trim around the ankles and call it good. If you want the footed look, here is what I did:

Last but not least, sew on your buttons....

....Secure your flap....

and you're done! Hot dog! Now your little ones can stay warm and toasty all winter long! For more pictures, click here. And if you don't mind, please stop by the Sew Warm Challenge and if you like, vote for me!