Guest Blogger Sarah and Her Lobster PJ Bottoms!

And as promised: another guest post! This one is from my dear friend Sarah. I have worked with Sarah for about 5 years and we are terrible influences on each other. We cackle daily and spend countless hours coming up with new ways to torture Office Twin (I am reminded of the time we made him put 8 Altoids in his mouth pretending we had the same amount in our mouths. We had none). It's fantastic. I am honoured to call her a friend and she is honoured to call me a numpty. Did I mention she's British? So here is an awesome tutorial about making lobster print PJ bottoms. Follow her on Instagram here Her user name is Scarethread and she makes fantastic things! Enjoy! 

p.s. Sarah, this gif's for you...

A couple of years ago, I bought the best pair of pyjamas I have ever owned. Ever. I bought them from an online shop called Hush, and they had the most adorable lobster pattern on them. I pretty much lived in them. Chances were, if I was in my home, you would find me proudly wearing my lobsters. If they were in the wash, I’d reluctantly wear my other pjs for the day and as soon as they were clean again, they would be right back on for as long as I could get away with it. (I’d like to point out that my other pyjamas are awesome, i just have a thing for lobsters. X)

Here they are (I wish I could say that’s me… it’s not)

It’s been three years, and I am now at that stage where I cannot wear them and keep my self respect or dignity. They have stains all over them. Tea, wine, coffee, curry, chili, more wine. Everything. Urgh, they are disgusting.

I know it’s not normal to form this kind of attachment to a single item of clothing, but I just can’t get myself to throw them away. But it is time to move on… And seeing as I like a challenge, I decided to try making my own pair as an homage to the best lobster pjs in the world..

First, I drew the lobster from my pjs onto a rubber block for carving. I decided to make the lobster a bit bigger than the original because it would be easier to carve. I then got busy carving my lobster out. I didn't take any photos of this part, because honestly, this is so much fun that I lost an entire evening to the process. For anyone who hasn't done this before, I highly recommend it. All you need is a rubber stamp or linoleum, some chisels and some spare time. so.therapeutic!

I spent a little while stamping out a few samples to make sure I was happy with how it printed.

Then, I got some light blue cotton fabric that I had picked up from IKEA and bought some red fabric paint. I pre-washed and ironed it, and then settled in front of some old episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and stamped the lobsters while crying my eyes out because it was the episode where Denny dies.

Side note: if you have feline friends at home, it is wise not to do the stamping on the floor. I made this mistake, and my cat Fluffy and I are not on speaking terms anymore. She thought it would be a good idea to jump into the red paint, then freaked out and ran in circles all over my beige rug. Miraculously, she completely avoided running over my fabric. The rug however, looks like someone has been murdered on it.

I moved over to the coffee table and also changed tv shows because there was too much crying happening.

Back to it. I completely lobsterized the fabric. It took ages, but it was totally worth it. I love how the occasional lobster is facing the other way. And I love how much care and effort has gone into every single lobster and how they all look slightly different.

My mother-in-law, who is a genius when it comes to sewing, sent me a pj pattern in the post. And I decided on the medium size. I cut out all my pieces. I’ll admit it was actually terrifying to make the first cut into the beautiful fabric, and I almost decided to just leave it as a tablecloth, but then the cat thwarted that idea, see below.

Here it is with all the pieces cut out.

All that was left to do, was follow the instructions. It was simple enough. The instructions were pretty self explanatory, and when I didn’t get something, I used YouTube. Plus I had helpers.

There was only one time I swore out loud and demanded my husband go out to the shops and bring me back beer, and that was right near the end when I realized I had sewn the crotch area wrong, and so I had to unpick for aages, and now there may or may not be a tiny hole somewhere in that area, we shall never speak of it again!

Action shot:

Here is the end product.

The whole process probably took me about a week. (I’m a full time working mum, so that’s a couple of hours every evening, except chili night, because that night is sacred in our household. And a few hours on Sunday where I partially neglected the kids because I was determined to wear them that evening.) Oh my days!  I am so happy with how they turned out. That’s me with said beer, it probably explains the dopey look on my face.

My husband also took this photo of me because he said I had a face for radio. What a %^&*!

Next time (I’m already thinking entire family nautical pj sets - jellyfish, sharks, prawns, octopuses, sea cucumbers; and I’m currently in the planning stages of creating an angler fish pj for a work colleague of mine, I can’t wait!) I will probably buy a softer cotton, and adjust the pockets so they are a bit deeper. What can I say, I like deep pockets. But all in all. I LOVE them, and I loved making them. And, check out how lucky I was on the old spool of thread… phew!

Thanks for listening to me rambling on about lobster pjs, I can imagine it’s a difficult subject to stay interested in, I appreciate it.

PS, I decided to throw the old pjs out. It was a sad decision, but check this out, I now have my very own commemorative lobster pj embroidery hoop. It’s now hanging up by my desk.

Take care, Sarah