Friday, October 4, 2013

Tall Pajamas on the Cheap

It's tough being a guy who wears a size medium pajamas but has very long legs.  Robert has a few pairs of PJ pants that weren't very long to begin with and after being dried a few times are now "Urkel in high-water pants" short.  This is particularly painful for a man from Texas, a place where Lyle Lovett's admonition to "buy your pants just a little longer" is commonly-heeded advice.  Put such a man in such pants in the frozen north when winter is coming and it's not a happy thing.  Something had to be done.

Most clothiers assume that if you're tall, you're also "big."  The only flannel PJs pants I could find that come in a Tall Medium are at Lands End for $44 a pair.  Even with Land Ends's 30% off sales, that's still $31 for a pair of pajama bottoms.

So I decided to try extending a pair of Robert's too-short PJ pants with additional fabric at the end of the legs.  My supply of fabric that is compatible with plaid flannel is, let us say, extremely limited to the point of non-existent.  But I did have an old pair of navy blue sweatpants that were in good condition but that I just hated wearing and I only kept with my fabric stash because I thought that people in Snow City might come to find a use for this warm fabric.  This was prophetic on my part.  (Perhaps not as prophetic as playing the word VOMIT with my mom in Words with Friends minutes before her cat started vomiting, but also much less gross.)

In about 30 minutes (15 minutes of which involved transforming my job search space into a sewing space), I had finished the job.  One great thing about knit fabrics like this is that they don't unravel, so I didn't even bother hemming them.  Robert tried them on and we found that yes, they are now Texan-in-Snow-City compatible.

You can still see the tailor's chalk at the bottom, but it'll wash off.

He might not wear these PJs to walk to the corner store to buy Honey Nut Cheerios*, but they should be just fine for sleeping and lounging about doing a crossword puzzle on a Sunday morning.  I actually think they look kind of cool with the low-contrast band at the bottom.

*I started to post a link to the YouTube video of this scene from The Wire, but instead I will tell you -- if you have not watched this show, what are you waiting for?  Life is too short, people.

5 comments:

mom said...

You are lucky the blue matches. Much better than, say, orange or pink.

Sally said...

Hah, Robert should be glad I didn't have only sweatpants of an incompatible color. :)

Debbie M said...

Yeah, my first idea was adding ruffles to the bottom. This is much better. Also better than fringe. Although leather fringe ...

FYI, Robin says he has found such pajama bottoms at LLBean and Target but they have a drawstring waist.

Or could you take big pj bottoms and cut out strips from the side?

Sally said...

Debbie, thanks for the heads-up on LL Bean and Target as other potential sources. Buying bigger pants and taking them in would also be an option -- Robert would dislike losing his pockets so I'd have to do something more complicated than the obvious taking in at the side seams.

Debbie M said...

Right. Men get pockets in their PJ's. Cool.