Fashion Refashion: Saving the Beloved Frog PJs (Part 1)

My sewing machine has been a tad neglected lately. I want to spend more time with her but the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity with the beginning of school, Girl Scouts, playdates, a trip out of town, the High Holidays... You name it, we've been doing it.

Finally, this week I made time to work on a project that's been sitting on my to-do pile for far too long. Miss Belle had two pairs of frog pajamas that she adored. The problem? Both pairs of pjs are a size 2 and Miss Belle does not wear a 2T any more. She tried- desperately- to hold onto these pajamas. Finally I had to give her a countdown. "You can wear them three more times and then I'm taking them away." She pulled out all the stops to find a way to keep them.



"You can change the size on the tag."
"Sorry, that won't make them any bigger."
"You could sew them bigger."

Sigh, I should have seen that one coming thanks to this little miracle I pulled off last year.

She looks so young and squishy- and that was only 10 months ago!

We finally came to a compromise. Miss Belle could no longer wear her pjs in their current state but I would find a way to breathe new life into them. Because, seriously, look at what she was trying to wear to bed. Silly girl.

"I do believe I can fit into these pjs! I do believe!"

I decided to turn her pajamas into two fall outfits. One for her and one for a new bunny. This girl loves her stuffed animals. Sometimes I wonder how she finds room for herself on her bed. So I thought she would appreciate a doll with whom she could coordinate outfits.

I'm going to show you everything that I did. But it is a little much for one post. So I've broken it into three parts.

Part 1: Snowball

One thing that I (and my bank account) love about this project is that I only used materials that were already in my sewing room. For the body of our bunny rabbit, I chose this sweet strawberry flannel. So soft!

I cut out two almost-circles for the head.

And added darts to give it dimension.

On one side of the head, I gave the bunny eyes, a nose, mouth, and cheeks.

Then I stitched on eyelashes and whiskers. And I added buttons for the pupils of her eyes.

And, of course, every bunny needs a pair of long ears.

To make the body, I cut out two pieces in a shape similar to a peanut.

Again, I added darts for dimension. I also cut out some arms and legs.

And sewed them onto my body pieces.

To make the bunny tail, I first cut out a piece of felt roughly in the shape of a rectangle. Obviously, I was not concerned with precision. Then I sewed a basting stitch around the perimeter of my felt, pulled it tight like a pouch, and stuffed it with fiberfill.

I attached the tail onto the backside of our bunny.

 And sewed the front and back heads onto the front and back of the body.

With right sides facing, I sewed the front and back of the bunny together. I made sure to leave a hole at the bottom for turning it right side out.

Once she was all stitched together, I turned her right side out.

All that was left was to fill her with stuffing.

And stitch her closed.

Miss Belle was quite pleased with her new bunny. Her body shape is a little funny, but not too bad considering that I was just winging it. And she is soft and comfy like a pillow.

Miss Belle says that her tail looks like a snow ball. So that's what she named her. Stay tuned for Part 2 & 3 of this Fashion Refashion to see Miss Belle and Snowball's new froggie outfits!