Patriotic PJs

Well, he did it again!  Another pair of my husband's pajama pants with a huge hole in the knee!

They desperately needed patching, but since these pants were a red-white and blue plaid, I decided to make them "patriotic"!  Using some of the leftover blue plaid from my first pajama project, I made star-shaped patches.

For the large star over the knee I used the same reverse-applique technique that I used for the Father's Day T-shirt.  This time however, I used a zig-zag stitch in addition to a straight stitch to add some reinforcement.

The zig-zagging will also keep the fabric from fraying apart and creating another hole.  For the little decorative stars I simply sewed them onto the top side of the pajamas much like a traditional patch.  In keeping with the rustically casual feel of reverse applique, (and because I'm lazy) I didn't bother to turn under and hem the raw edges of the little stars.  Instead I just zig-zagged around the edges.

Sewing stars onto pants turned out to be much more annoying than I thought it would be!  Because the pant legs were narrow they kept bunching up around my sewing machine.  As I turned the pants to sew the sides of the stars the machine kept catching material that had folded up underneath the seam!  I'd then have to rip out a bunch of stitches and start again.  I sure learned the value of going slowly on this one!

But hey, they turned out rockin' anyway!