Adult Night Gown to Child's Pajamas

All of the sudden, it's not cold at night anymore.  










Which means that Kewpie's warm PJ's are too warm to sleep in.  

So I went looking in my discarded clothes box and found this old nightgown from my mom. Thanks Mom!

I really wanted to keep the embroidery around the neckline, and I loved the lightweight, stretchy blue knit.  

I'd traced a t-shirt of Kewpie's before, following this tutorial from indietutes.  

Then I lay it out on the nightgown, making sure that the neckline included the embroidered flowers.

After cutting it out, it was pretty simple.  Sew the shoulders closed, and sew up the sides.

For the sleeves, I wanted to the follow the same idea as the green t shirt I made for Kewpie earlier. (Click here to see it.)  So I used the original sleeves without making them smaller to fit the smaller frame.

This time, I measured 3 inches up from the armpit and gathered the sleeve until it fit inside the frame of the shirt.  Then I pinned it in place and sewed it in.


I'm going to have to rework my pattern, because the shoulders were too big when I tried it on Kewpie.


Perhaps I had made it big enough for a seam allowance, and then I serged it and didn't take enough off. Who knows.

The leggings were super simple.  I traced some knit pants of Kewpie's following Dana of MADE's idea.  I didn't worry about backs or fronts, though, because they were going to fit rather tightly. 

Pants are so easy to make!  


Once they're cut out, just sew the front and back together and sew one long seam from ankle to crotch to ankle.  


Sew in an elastic waist.

I think the whole project took me about an hour!  (We'll see how long it takes to get that top to fit right, though.)

Addendum:  Well, it's gotten even hotter, and I wasn't surprised to see the top worn alone one morning.  So I took some scraps and cut out a four inch ruffle for the top, and now it's a nightgown again.  Perhaps the fabric missed being a nightgown. 

Lesson:  don't throw away scraps. (My mother is probably disagreeing with me at this moment and about to explain to me that this is the way you become a pack rat.  Too late, Mom.)

T-shirt Fancifying for the Two Year Old

Excuse the sad face.  Kewpie likes the shirt, just not the photographer.  She's two.

I had this plain small children's t-shirt in green that I got from the dollar store.  Kewpie is smaller than a children's small, though.  I'd put the t-shirt in my stash, waiting for inspiration, and when I saw it this week, I was inspired.  It is, after all, March.  The month to celebrate green.

First of all, I cut the t-shirt off completely an inch under the arms.

Then I took a t-shirt that fit her well, folded it in half, poked the sleeves in, and traced the body.

You could also trace a sleeve, but I discovered that I didn't need them..

Then I placed the pattern on the top of the t-shirt, lining it up with the top seams and neckline (I was still going to use those) and traced it with soap.  Then I cut around the arms and down.  (Sorry, forgot to photo that.)

I cut about an inch off the sleeve at the part where it meets the shirt to make it shorter.  Then I pinned and sewed the sleeves back in, but because the body was smaller now, the sleeves were too wide.  That made for a cute little pucker in the top of the sleeve.

Then I took the bottom part of the shirt, gathered it, and reattached it to the now smaller shirt.

Last of all, I tried it on Kewpie, and she gave her approval, whew!

I would say it took me about 30-45 minutes.

Now to ponder on how to embellish it.  A shamrock on the front?