Well, it has been a while since I’ve written anything here, but please don’t worry; work has been busy, and additionally my youngest started school, so fitting in lots of drop-off’s and collections as well as working full time has been somewhat time-consuming to say the least! I have been sewing though, but only in very short bursts, hence the lack of finished items and therefore posts!
Given that I’m changing both weight and size, I have recently felt the need to start sewing less selfishly. The trouble is actually working out what I can or should sew. A while back it dawned on me that all my daughters pyjamas were too small. I then realised I had some perfect lightweight jersey that I could make into pyjamas. Then I realised that she actually prefers nightdresses to pyjamas, and that’s even easier 🙂
I looked through my pattern stash for a nightdress pattern, and realised that I could use the Petitboo Jasmine T-shirt (a free pattern) that I had downloaded about a year ago with the intention of making a t-shirt for her, until I realised that she had no need, nor desire for a t-shirt! The Jasmine Tee is a simple round-necked tee with grown on sleeves and a curved hem. The sleeves actually have a folded cuff, and I started off intending to use this, but then my daughter tried it on as is, and declared that she wanted the sleeves to stay the same length. I also thought that folding the cuffs would add bulk on something that needs to be super-comfy.
Pattern alteration was very simple – pretty much being a case of altering the length, I lengthened the t-shirt by approximately 20cm for my daughter giving some room for growth. As the front and back pattern pieces are the same apart from the neckline I only actually altered one of them, then cut out the top half and overlaid the pieces to cut out the full length. In order to lengthen the hem I needed to use the next size up at the hem – purely because I wanted the nightdress to widen slightly rather than be the same width all the way down.
Construction is incredibly easy – attach the facing pieces to the neckline, clip the seams, sew the shoulder seams, sew the side / underarm seams, finish if required (I didn’t bother – the jersey doesn’t fray, and because it is a narrow seam allowance, there’s not even a need to clip under the arms 🙂 ) See what I mean? It’s so easy 🙂 Not only is it easy, but it’s also remarkably quick. Admittedly, it took me about a month from deciding on the project to actually completing it, but as I have already mentioned, some days I have very little time for sewing, and other days I have no time, so that’s much more to do with me than the pattern itself!
I did move away from the instructions, as I sewed the shoulder seams before sewing the facings in to the neckline. I sewed a little strip of selvedge from a woven cotton fabric on to the back shoulder seam (not down the length of the arm, as at this stage I thought I would still be folding for the cuffs) to stabilise the seams a bit as with the prima top I made myself last year.
It’s safe to say though that this didn’t go quite as intended. Let’s just say that it is important to ensure that your needle is secure in the machine before you start sewing…I must have missed this vital step resulting in…
I didn’t bother folding the cuffs as my daughter liked the sleeves the way they were, and I was a little concerned about adding bulk on something that needs to be super-comfy.
I’m not sure what else I can say about this; construction was straightforward, using lightning stitch (a narrow zigzag). Hemming was again easy – I used a twin jersey needle and went slowly…I’m not sure I need to go slowly, but I have found in the past that stitches were skipped when I went faster. That though, was a good while back, when I had less practice and it was using a different fabric, so maybe I need to use some of the scraps to practice going a bit faster!
I finished the nightdress about a week ago, and it has been the sleepwear of choice ever since, so all in all, I’m really pleased and will be looking out for some more jersey for a repeat make 🙂
