A Pyjama Blouse

I first noticed the pyjama blouse trend being worn by a stylish girl in London late last year, and the idea has stuck with me. A couple of weeks ago I bought some printed silk from Misan and couldn’t decide between a Pleat Neck Blouse or a shirt. Then I saw the Prada A/W25/26 runway show pyjama blouse and my mind was set on The Box Shirt with piping. 

I cut out the Box Shirt with the following amendments to allow for the piping: I traced off the front pattern piece, folded the facing over on to the front, cut down the folded edge and add 1cm seam allowance to each edge. I interfaced only the new facing pieces. I curved the edge of the lapel on both front and facing.

For the collar I cut this as two separate pieces adding a 1cm seam allowance on the outer edge and again curved the collar point. The Box Shirt pattern doesn’t have a pocket but I added a simple one by cutting two rectangles 14cm x 15cm and 10cm x 15cm.

I also straightened the tapered sleeve as shown above. And cut the sleeve 8cm longer to allow for a deeper cuff. 

I do not own a piping foot so to create the blouse I improvised using a zipper foot.

I made my own piping trim as I wanted to make sure it was fine enough, and fluid enough, for the silk. First I cut long strips of 3cm wide, fine cotton on the bias. For the cord I used thin string as I didn’t have fine enough piping cord. This I placed in the middle of the cotton strip and folded it over. I butted the zipper foot right up to the ridge of the string and with the needle positioned over to the right, stitched the cord in place.

I started with a pocket to perfect my piping technique. Taking the 10x15cm piece, I interfaced one half. Then with right sides together, I sandwiched the trim in the middle, lining up the outer edge of the trim with the fabric edges. Still using my zipper foot I stitched right up against the ridge of the string. 

Then turned the rectangle through and pressed. I placed this onto the top edge of the other rectangle and stitched through. I rounded the bottom two corners of the pocket and took a 1cm seam allowance to attach the pocket to the left hand front (as worn). 

I moved on to the collar. As the piping here needs to go around the curved edge, for accuracy I stitched the trim to one collar piece first, making snips around the curved sections as I went. Then placed the second collar piece on top and stitched as tightly to the cord as possible.

In the image above I have trimmed back the first layer of seam allowance to show the piping trim in place. 

Before turning the collar through I trimmed the remaining seam allowance back as well. Once the collar is attached to the body of the shirt, I stitched the trim for the front edge in place, bringing the trim to nothing where it meets the collar.

I placed the facing on top to sandwich the trim as I had on the collar. 

For the sleeves, I cut the bottom of the sleeve off 20cm from the cuff. I inserted the trim between the two pieces. Once the underarm seams were stitched I press the cuff edge over by 1cm and again to cover the trim seam by 0.5cm. On the right side I stitched through tightly to the cord, stitching the cuff in place.

The finished shirt is exactly as I wanted it. While it's still cold outside I’ll be wearing it with the faux fur Boxy Jacket and a pair of Classic Trousers.