sinterklaas pyjamas.

 

Happy Saint Nicholas' day everyone! 

Since most of you are not from a Dutch of Flemish nationalty, many of you might be thinking by now.. Saint Nicholas, say what? 

For those of you less interested in Dutch festivities; don't worry, this post also contains: 

    - a refashion

    - Joost's legs

    - and a few cats

But first, sinterklaas! All of you not in the know; Saint nicholas, or Sinterklaas,  is this fellow: 

Hiya!

Sinterklaas is often dubbed as 'Dutch Santa". And while the red clothing, white beard and his habit of giving presents are quite similar to santa claus, there are some differences as well. 

- sinterklaas means 'kruidnoten!' Every Dutch person will eat his/her own weight in 'kruidnoten', a delicious, tiny crunchy cookie, that taste a bit like gingerbread but better)

SO delicious!!

-In the weeks before sinterklaas, children leave carrots in their shoes in front of the fireplace, for sinterklaas' horse who goes roof to roof. 

-And finally on saint nicholas' eve, there is not only a tradition of giving each other gifts, but also of accompaning each gift with a little rhyme. 

You can please or tease each other about everything that happened over the last year, doesn't matter what, as long as it rhymes. I especially love this part because it takes the focus away from the (monetary) value of the gifts, and rather pays attention to all the creativity and thought that people have put into the gift they are giving you. 

In our family, the tradition has evolved into a rather complicated snark-competition, which is absolutely hilarious. To give you an example of what we rhyme about: 

• -I sinterklaas casually accused my mum of habitually murdering birds, because of an incident involving two chickens, a bale of straw and a garden gate that happened 20 years ago( she is, for the record, a lovely lady)
• Sinterklaas pondered the joys of pooping in the bathtub (my baby niece got a swimming diaper as a gift)
• And there was a poem that reminiscenced the sock-eating habits of our old family dog. 

While due to socially distancing,  we could only celebrate it with my parents, and send the rest of the gifts by mail, we still had a blast! 

Another thing that I associate with sinterklaas is of course, pyjamas! luckily, I am since one of my latest refashions fully equipped. Joost, however, was not so lucky. 

What is up with all those pyjama-related disasters in our household?

I.. have no explanation! Luckily,  I did have a solution. One that came,  once again, in the form of a thrift-shop-duvet-cover-find….

Hi, my name is Marije, and I'm addicted to buying duvet covers..

Isn't it a beaut? It has both a stripy, and a checkered side, double win!

And it seems that I'm not the only lucky owner of this , because look what I found on a bored panda post about supermodel cats (Am I addicted to looking at pictures of cats on the internet? of course I am!)

 

I mean, it is very hard to look at anything else than those eyebrows, but we have the same duvet covers! 

I didn't keep mine as duvet covers for long though, because they were duly sacrificed to keep Joost's backside modest, comfortable and toasty ;)

If you want to give it a try yourself (maybe as a christmas present?), here are the steps!

1) I cut the old pyjama trousers open along the seams, to use as a pattern guide. 

2) I folded the fabric double, And cut out my pieces, with a bit of extra on the side as seam allowance, and a few cm extra fabric for the waistband.

3) optional steps, if you want to make it harder for yourself (and of you want to!) 

        - cut a bit of extra fabric on both front panels to use as a fly ( I cut about 5x10 cm extra)

        - cut extra pockets

snip!

4) I sewed the four pocket pieces into the side seams 

80% of sewing is making sure that you place your fabric the right way around

5) placing the pack and front pieces together (side sides together) I sewed the inner and outer legseam, including the pockets. 

voila!

6) I folded the added fabric in front for the buttoned fly, and sewed the crotch seam.

I was rather chuffed with that!

7) Then I folded over the waistband, and secured it in place

8) And hemmed the legs. 

The final step were adding elastic and a drawstring, and sewing on some buttons so Joost could keep his dignity while wearing them.

Done! 

Here proudly presenting my better half's lower half: 

The man. The 'jams. 

I say 'the man', but when I hounded Joost about taking photo's, he decided to get all shy. 'Not my face!' he said. So you'll just have to take my word for the fact that Joost is indeed in possession of a face, and that (in my opinion) it is a rather nice one ;)

Joost is throwing me a sceptical look, because I threw those 'kruidnoten' into the picture for a festive touch

Luckily, I could sneak an extra picture while Joost was checking his phone!

Inky celebrated sinterklaas by being carried around by Joost in her newest favourite paper bag.

a cat's wishes are sometimes unfathomable. 

Other members of our household were less camera-shy...

legs? face? butt? I don't care, human, here's all of it! 

 with or without sinterklaas, I hope you had a lovely weekend! hugs