How to Sew Pajama Pants

Elastic-waist pajama pants are one of the easiest projects for the beginning sewer to try. Here's how:

Work from a Pattern: 

• Lay your pattern out on the fabric as directed, being careful of the straight grain of the fabric, and making sure to preserve all tabs and special markings.
• With right sides together, pin and stitch the front center seam and the back center seam. Clip the curved part of the seams and press the seam allowances open.
• Matching front and back seam allowances, pin the front and back pieces together at the inseam. Stitch the inseam, clip curves and press the seam allowances open.
• Holding the work by the stitched seam, let the front and back of one leg hang sideways from that seam. This will allow the work to correct itself and not be stitched together on the bias, as sometimes happens. Pin the side seam together as the hanging test indicates. Stitch the seam and press the seam open.
• For the waistband, fold over the top once about 5/8" and then again about 1-1/4". Pin this and stitch it down close to the folded edge, starting at the back center seam. Leave an inch or so of unstitched space; you will insert the elastic through this gap.
• Cut a piece of elastic to a length that will be comfortable around your waist, adding 1" for seam allowance. Attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic and work it through the waistband, making sure it doesn't twist and that you don't lose the other end.
• Pin the two ends of the strung elastic together and run the sewing machine over them a couple of times. Let them slip into the casing and hand-stitch the casing closed.
• To hem the bottoms, turn over 5/8" then another inch or so, and either hand-stitch or machine-stitch close to the fold.

Make Your Own Pattern:

• You can also make your own pajama pant pattern. Get some butcher paper or other large-format paper, and lay out a pair of your existing pajama pants or even a pair of slacks that fit you well. Lay them as flat and smooth as possible.
• Trace lightly around one leg, starting at the top center of the waistband and around and up into the inseam. Since there is a little extra fabric in the inseam, get it to lay as flat as possible so that extra fabric also turns up on your drawing. You'll have to work a little to get the front center seam drawn.
• Neaten up your sketching by drawing 5/8" outside all the lines and straightening up the lines. If you're drawing around regular slacks, add a little for comfort.
• Then flip over the pants and trace the back pattern. There will be a larger crotch curve on the back piece than on the front.

If you're tracing around slacks, don't curve in at the side seam. Treat the side seam line as the straight grain of the fabric and assemble the pants as described above.