Butterick Granny Nightie!

 

My sewing took a bit of turn over the last week or so! I decided I needed a new warm flannel nightgown (just in time for our cold snap here!) I have a couple of older thrifted patterns like this (this Butterick 4939 is the newest one, and it's from 2006) because it's so hard to find a sleepwear pattern currently that isn't a tee and pants set. I prefer a good old granny nightgown! 

I chose View B, mostly because I was a bit short on fabric. Actually I was quite a bit short. I had bought this pretty floral flannel on sale at Fabricland and when I went back to top up, there wasn't any more. So I had to puzzle it out. 

As it turns out, this was quite creatively satisfying. I had an old pair of flannel pj bottoms that I've been meaning to cut up to reuse - they were in great shape but somehow too small... They were an offwhite so I thought they'd blend okay with this print. And let's face it, this is just for sleeping ;) 

So I cut the yoke and yoke facing from the pants. I had to cut the full back with a side seam right down the middle, and was able to cut the two front yoke pieces with just a bit of seam along the edge. If I'd narrowed the yoke first (which I should have done, as the shoulders are quite wide - I could have taken each outer side in by almost an inch) I'd have avoided seams altogether. It's very wearable though, and I'm not going back to take anything in on the shoulders as I've french seamed everything; side seams, sleeves and armscye. It will have to do! 

I also had to cut the sleeves a lot shorter than the pattern, as I was out of fabric. So when I finished the main body, I felt that the stark yoke didn't really look great. Sigh. I made covered buttons from the original green fabric, and that added a bit of tie-in. But it still wasn't quite right. So instead of hemming the sleeves, I cut a 5" wide cuff from the remainder of the pants - that's as big as I could go before running out of white flannel. That really tied it together and it was starting to look good. 

But then my husband offhandedly remarked that I could embroider on the yoke. And I thought, not sure I want to embroider them, but I have two longish, narrow strips of the green flannel left over and I could probably harvest some motifs from there. So I did -- I chose the bits that I thought I could get most of a flower from and fused them to some Steam-a-Seam. Then I cut my chosen motifs and a few little extra leaves and added foliage and put together a design. I really love it! It was really fun to noodle around with the fused fabric and try to see how I could make complete motifs. And they are fused on for now, although I will likely have to stitch them down as well so that they stay put. 

Anyhow, for a project that was supposed to be a fast & easy, functional garment, this turned out to  be challenging in the sense of finding enough fabric and getting a look I liked. I certainly didn't expect to be spending an afternoon choosing decorative add-ons! I had a lot of fun, though, and now I have the perfect William Morris feeling nightgown, both useful and beautiful. 

Candy Coloured Night Dress

I saw this colourful and lightweight striped cotton at Fabricland and just couldn't resist it. I knew I had to make a summer nightgown out of it, and used one of the many vintage patterns I had laying around, Butterick 3559. I made view B, short with flutter sleeves.

The pattern calls for lace as the yoke and shoulder strap pieces but seeing as I didn't have any, and prefer no scratchiness, I just cut the pieces from the fabric as well. Originally I thought of doubling up those pieces so I could self-line the yoke to finish the edges, but in the end I just used a very lightweight vintage percale bias binding in a lovely shade of green to finish the neckline all the way around. That little splash of green makes me happy :)

It worked nicely and was a quick sew; the yoke was the only "difficult" part, compared to the gathered rectangular sewing in the rest. I love the floppy sleeve and the floatiness of this pattern (although it also runs quite large - I did have to narrow the yoke at front & back centre by 2"! -- which I only figured out after making it so I just folded out a central pleat for both).

I also added some teeny tiny buttons from my stash to the front edge to make it easier to keep track of which way around it should go. Finally a use for those tiny buttons!

I think that these two pieces of nightwear I've shared his week will last me for a while, and I will most likely not have to make any more for a few years -- but a robe might be the next necessary project... What should it be? A Suki? A Jalie Mélanie? Do you have a favourite robe pattern?

Summer Sunshine in Gingham

I recently found this cheery yellow gingham seersucker at my local fabric store, and immediately thought of this vintage night dress pattern, Style 3734, which I found while thrifting a few months ago. Dotty has kindly agreed to model it for me. 

I chose the nightgown, view 2 -- the short one -- and quickly cut this out. It's very simple -- front, back and yoke. Even though the back has a centre back seam, I had enough fabric to just cut it on the fold and save myself any stripe matching agony. 

I also found some off-white vintage bias binding in my stash to finish off the sleeve edges. 

The hardest part was the yoke, mostly because it was a bit fiddly. Sew together the edges and one layer of shoulder seam, hand stitch the other side closed, and attach the body of the gown to the opening you've left in the bottom of the yoke.

The pattern also directed you to slip stitch the inside yoke down, but lazily I just pinned it carefully and stitched in the ditch on the front of the yoke to catch it. It's a night gown, I don't need a flawless finish! 

One change I did make was to cut the yoke on the bias to change the direction of the gingham, just because I thought it would look nice that way. I had to be extra careful not to stretch it while sewing, though, because of that. I think it worked alright.

Then I gave it a wide 1" hem, and decided to stitch two little buttons on the front yoke for aesthetic appeal, and also to help me find the front easily when putting it on, as it's pretty much identical either way.

This was a quick project but a perfect one for these steamy dog days of August. It's cheerful and cool, what more do you need for summer nights?