I love the idea of having matching family pajamas on Christmas morning. The reality of finding them is an entirely different story!
This blog post of born out of my own research and frustration!
We are a family of 5 + 1 adorable pup. My concerns are price and availability. We need a lot of different sizes.
This is what I have found:
SHOP EARLY!!!!! It's true what they say, you have to shop early for the best selection. That's REALLY, REALLY true in this case. Lots of people love these matching sets so if you don't shop early you might be out of luck!
Pricing: The prices I quote are for 1 adult female set, 2 adult male sets, 2 boy (sizes 8 & 12) sets and 1 small dog set of pj's.
Style: The price and availability I'm quoting are for NON-footed pajama pants (unless otherwise indicated) and a long sleeve t-shirt. Nothing is personalized.
The Children's Place has some amazing sales on matching family pajamas and their quality is good. Though variety can be limited, most families will find a style they like. Sign up to be on their emailing list and get 25% off your first order. Regular price for my family of 5 (not including the dog) was $119.85 (free shipping). Sale price was $71.50 (free shipping due to a sale)!!!! In the end my husband didn't really go for the matching pj's idea so the cost (during the sale) for 3 kids' pj's is $35.00 (free shipping due to sale).
Snug as a Bug has a pretty good variety, but didn't seem to have all the sizes I needed in stock. Price to outfit our family was $324.75 + shipping. (FOOTED PAJAMAS)
Pajamagram has LOTS of colorful, fun options in a wide variety of sizes. $279.94 + shipping
The Company Store/Company Kids had about half a dozen styles plus a mother daughter set. The pictures show pj's for pets but I didn't see any on the website. Price to outfit my family $301.00 + shipping
Walmart.com has matching sets but nothing for the dog. Sets can be personalized with initials or names. Price to outfit my family $219.88 free shipping to the store.
Hanna Anderson has a nice selection of sets. There were several options for pets. Price to outfit my entire family $390 + shipping
Sleepy PJs aka MatchingSleepware.com has a limited selection and the options are not necessarily holiday themed. Most sets are solid colors or stripes There are options for pets and people of all sizes. Price to outfit the entire family $161.00 + flat rate shipping of $6.75. No pet pj's. PURCHASE THROUGH AMAZON.com.
Chasing Fireflies has a limited selection of very festive Christmas options in stock. Price to out fit my entire family is $297.50 + shipping.
SleepHeads.com has nice looking sets and LOTS festive of styles. For a family of 5 (no pet pj's available) the cost is $170.00 + tax. Shipping if free for orders over $75.
FootSteps Clothing is a great option for pjs that match but are not too holiday specific. This site offers sets that you can wear all year! Lots of solid colors that can be embellished with festive themes. They have an amazing amount of variety and the prices are pretty good. For a family of 5 (+ 1 small dog) the price is $205.00 + shipping.
Macy's says that they have family sets but is was too much of a chore for me to sort if all out. You have to go to each section (men's, women's and children's) and find the right sets. Their prices seemed ok, but frankly it was too much work!
Etsy has lots of people who make sets. I received quotes from several crafters. Specraftular was especially nice and helpful. She quotes me a price of $440 + shipping for my family.
Sew Your Own: Because I know how to sew, the final option for me is to sew them myself. I'm sure that I have a pattern somewhere around the house for pajama pants. If I don't have one i'd make a pattern, so there is not expense to purchase one. In terms of sewing my own pants for the family, that is always an option. Since i'm just looking for a plain long sleeve t-shirt i'd likely buy that and not sew it.
So the price to sew my own breaks down like this: Assuming 11 yards of flannel @ $6.99/yard. The cost for fabric is $76.89 (assuming I have no coupons). Joann ALWAYS has 40% off coupon so, $46.13 with a coupon. Another $15 for elastic and notions. I could make everyone matching pants for $61.13 + $40 to buy long sleeve t shirts. So approximately $101.13 to sew pajamas.
Sew Your Own Using Bed Sheets: I'm a hard core crafter been playing with the idea of making clothing items out of bed sheets. The pros of bed sheets as fabric are that they're light weight, easy to find and fairly inexpensive. If you tend to be hot/sweaty cotton sheets do a nice job of wicking moisture away from the body keeping you cool. You can buy "seconds" (imperfect sheets) for greater savings. The down sides: finding enough matching sheets to make as many pj's as you want. We have sons and they wear out the knees of pajama pants very quickly. I worry that the sheets would be quickly worn out.
An alternative would be to make pajama pants out of sheets and custom embellish t-shirts that you buy from the craft store.
If you live in the NY tri-state area Marburn Curtain has MANY varieties of flat sheets on sale for EXCELLENT prices. Go into the store - don't buy online. You can pick up king size sheets for approximately $12/each. They have shelves and shelves of them. If you're outside of NY check your local curtain or bedding store. Mom and Pop stores are a great resource for discounted sheets. You can buy a sheet set or single sheets. Sewing my own using sheets will cost me an estimated $70 for a family of 5. I can use the remnants to make the dog a shirt!
Semi-Homemade Option: I found sweatpants and sweat shirt "bundles" on walmart.com for $11/set. I'm sure that you can find matching sweatshirt and sweat pants fairly cheaply anywhere. Buy matching sets for the entire family. Then embellish the shirts with an applique, family initial or something festive (like a holly sprig, menorah or Christmas tree).
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| Custom Embellished Shirt |
PRO TIP:
If you are shopping online before to google the store name plus "coupon code." I googled "children's place coupon code" and for a code for 20% off my entire order.
SUPER PRO TIP:
Retail Me Not is an excellent source of coupon codes (they did not pay me to say that). I like them because you don't have to sign up or sign in. I just jump on their site and poof, coupon code!
Blog Post Courtesy of Mocha Kathy
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