This weeks Crafty Bloggers Club post is from a very festive Rhiannon, you can find more of her makes on Instagram @rhiannonbrum and on her blog morebluefabric.co.uk

I’m not sure what it is about the part of the year when spring asserts itself loudly and summer starts to begin to peek through, but in my head it leads directly to the prospect of lazy Sunday brunches sat in the garden with endless cups of tea on hand. (Whilst this is the dream, sadly the weather this weekend past was less than spring-like and so I went for a lazy Sunday drinking tea on the bed instead of in the garden!)

It was this promise of laziness that was sitting in my head when I talked to the team about my next make, and as soon as Freya showed me this gorgeous cotton sateen I knew in an instant that its future lay in a pair of Closet Case Carolyn pyjamas.

Although I’ve admired Closet Case patterns for a long time, I’ve never actually got around to making any of their designs (although there’s a big pile of denim in my stash that’s just waiting to be a pair of jeans). I was really impressed with the clarity of their instructions and the ease with which everything came together. There’s a couple of steps that could be quite tricky however I found that the instructions given were really well illustrated and just made sense (not something that can be said of every pattern company!).

As for the fabric, it was an absolute dream to work with; the stability of the cotton meant that it could be manipulated and moved around without warping, whilst the sateen nature meant it was just really nice to handle, feeling super soft which I think we can all agree is a must where loungewear is concerned!

The only aspect of the entire thing which was frustrating for me was an (abandoned) attempt to add piping on to the cuffs and lapels of the pyjamas. The fault absolutely lay with me rather than the instructions; I didn’t have any piping cord to hand so thought I’d just go for single fold bias binding and assumed it would still look fine. It didn’t. Even after three attempts. So I ripped the piping out of the cuffs, and didn’t even think about bothering with the lapels, and you know what? I actually think that – for this print – it looks better without.

Having seen how easily this set came together, I’ll definitely be making a few more pairs in the future; I really fancy a cosy flannel pair for winter (although I’ll be making the long sleeve version when I do!) and a plain coloured pair, possibly in satin, with contrast piping and a monogram to live out all of my 1950s film starlet fantasies! Watch this space….

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“Crafty Bloggers Club Contributors are given products and materials to test from Crafty Sew&So. We hope you enjoy their honest and impartial reviews of the products. All opinions are their own.”