Nightgown Made from Pillowcase

Pinterest is quickly becoming a huge timewaster favorite way to gather ideas.  I found this cute tutorial for making a nightgown out of a pillow case.  Nightgowns are very hard to find, and I love simple, fun projects.

Laying out the pattern pieces.

 I thought I took more pictures of the process, but apparently not!  Sorry about that!

All ready for night-night!

Look! There's Papa!

I'm very happy with how it turned out.   It's big (made to be about size 4T), but that just means she can wear it longer.

A few notes about the process:

Don't use a seam ripper to open up the top part of the pillowcase.  Just use your scissors to cut open.

The hardest parts will be doing the gathering for the ruffled sleeves and attaching to the skirt.  Still, very useful techniques to learn (or re-learn, in my case).

I have never made buttonholes, so I didn't go that route.  I used double-fold bias tape (I think that's the correct name) which I already had on hand to finish off the neck and back and to make the ties.  It's a little rough and stiff for my preferences, but it'll do.  Maybe next time, I'll use blanket binding which I think is more like ribbon which would be smoother and more flexible.

This project cost me $0.99 (plus tax) for the pillowcase at the local Salvation Army.  I already had the double-fold bias tape on hand, but that's inexpensive as well, and the remaining parts can be used for other projects (like more nightgowns!).

I'm going to let her wear this even in winter.  I prefer her to wear nightgowns (though she does have some pajamas, but we will transition to all nightgowns).  For wintertime, I will have her wear "longjohns" (thermal underwear) underneath her nightgowns.  This is pretty much what I do myself.

To see what else I'm working on, or planning on working on, check out my "Do Soon" board on Pinterest.  As I complete the projects, I'll blog about them.  Feel free to "pin me."

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Source: gingercake.typepad.com via Ava on Pinterest