Nightshirt for Jon

Our second wedding anniversary was on Friday, and the second anniversary theme is cotton, so I made Jon a nightshirt/robe. It can be worn without pajama pants, but not for photos on a blog! I found this goofy but very cozy flannel with giraffes, bunnies, ducks, and teddy bears on it, and thought it was better than the only boy-type prints at the fabric store, which were of the superhero variety. I just don't see Jon as a superhero PJ guy (but apparently bright pink with bunnies is OK). As you can see if you look closely, I accidentally cut the back upside down. I honestly didn't notice the directionality of the print before Jon put it on. Oh well.

As you can see from his big smile, he likes it! (Or at least he likes me enough to pretend.) It's warm and soft and obviously made with love. I used Simplicity 3683, a costume pattern I already had from making a shirt-and-pants costume for a friend of our for Halloween one year. It's unisex and has a lot of variations on this kind of shirt and pants. I shortened a duster coat. I cut a straight XS for Jon; even though his measurements should have put him at a small, I thought the wearing ease was too much. Jon is a smallish guy, but I think it's kind of silly that he is the right size for an XS in a unisex pattern. What would small ladies do? For example, the shoulders on this are too broad for me, and there are a lot of women smaller than I am. (I would have posted pictures of me in this so Jon wouldn't be embarrassed, but the shoulders are too big and the hips too small.) We shouldn't expect a unisex costume to have a great fit for most ladies, but it's still a little ridiculous.

I was thinking about sewing the shirt together in the front up to the second button level, but then I did so much work to make the facings nice all the way down that I didn't want to just sew it together, and now that I've made buttonholes, it would look weird, so I'll leave it as is. Speaking of buttonholes, they went really well! I just used the buttonhole foot on my sewing machine, and it was pretty self-explanatory. I think I've only made one or two before, many years ago, so I was nervous.

Thanks, Jon, for letting me post these! You're the best husband ever.