"These Are a Few of My Favorite Things": The Beginnings of My New Pajamas

I absolutely love it when one of my family members saves some money when buying a gift for me. I love it even more when I can put this gift to use in a way that saves me money.

Every couple of years, I sew myself a new pair of flannel pajama pants. 

Christmas of 2021 one daughter bought me this beautiful grey and white flannel fabric for the pajama pants that I have worn for the last 2 years. 

It's now time for me to add a new pair of pajama bottoms to the rotation. This time I mentioned that I'd like a pink print in flannel and actually picked one out online and showed it my daughters. I also mentioned that they could save some money by shopping that week, if this was a gift they wanted to buy for me. The fabric was on sale for $3.99/yd, and my daughters now know that I always need 2 yards of fabric for pj pants. They saved themselves about $12 total compared to the regular price. So they bought a gift for me that was exactly what I would like, and by shopping at the right time, they saved themselves some money on the gift.

On my end, I won't need to spend a single cent to sew these up. I have thread and elastic in my stash and the needed sewing pattern. I've been using this same McCall's pattern for 23 years. This will be my 8th pair of pajama pants made with this pattern. I like to get my money's worth out of patterns (ha ha). 

I've made long flannel pajamas, long lightweight cotton pajamas, and summer pajama shorts with this same pattern, some pairs for me and some pairs for both of my daughters. I know this pattern very well, now. It's an easy one to begin with, but also, being so familiar with it, I can sew up a pair of pjs in one afternoon. One day next week (after we've taken the Christmas tablecloth off the table), I'll get out my sewing machine.

When I was looking at flannel fabric with my daughters in early December, they asked what I was looking for. I mentioned I wanted something bright and cheerful that would feel spring-y to me. I wear flannel pajama bottoms until late May -- it's that chilly at night where I live. So something that looked less like "winter," but would still keep me warm at night was top of mind this time. I love that there are tiny tulips throughout this print. I think these pjs will say "spring."

I don't mind not being completely surprised when it comes to gifts that I receive. And I don't mind having to put in some work with the gift to "finish" the gift. I treasure the knowledge that my family members want to please me. In our family, we each come up with suggestions for the rest of the members to consider. Our family seems to prefer this method as opposed to trying to guess what everyone would like.

How do you feel about gifts? Do you like to be completely surprised, or are you okay with having a general idea what close family might give to you? As the gift-shopper, do you prefer to surprise someone, or do you appreciate a "wish list"?