Dress Pajamas

I went to Camp Stitchalot with my sister! She's a garment sewist, where as I am more of a quilter, though I will sew garments, particularly skirts and dresses for little girls, I guess.

Anyway. When she arrived, we discussed what projects we were taking, and I brought out from my drawers a number of patterns, and she chose one from the pile, and said that if I were to make it, she'd be happy to help, as she has much more experience with a) fitting patterns to people and b) working with knit fabrics. So before heading out to camp, we swung by Pink Castle Fabrics to get a yard and a half of knit, and then threw it in the washing machine while we went out to lunch.

View B, obviously.

Then, bundling the wet fabric into the car, we went to Camp! And then shortly after we arrived I realized I didn't pack either my phone cord or my peach thread. So I used white thread, and borrowed phone chargers where I could.

Late Friday night we discussed fit and what to do to make something that would fit me around the bottom and not slide off my shoulders (I am a size smaller on top than I am at my waist and hips). And on Saturday morning, I was cutting out my fabric, and by dinnertime the nightgown was all but done.

I used Desert Blanket in jersey by April Rhodes for Art Gallery. I love the peach and navy! Also we did go around feeling all the knits and it was by far the softest.  I'm super impressed with their substrate.

 

The only complicated bit, apart from fitting the pattern to my shape, was the attaching of the neckline and facing. The pattern was not super clear on how that was supposed to happen. But we sorted it out between the two of us. I hand stitched in the facing in the end, because I was not confident that I could secure it neatly with the sewing machine on the right side of the garment.

I want to show you inside, so I can mention about seam finishing:

You don't have to do it with a kni. I hemmed the sleeves and the bottom with a double needle (as I explained on in this post about knits which I wrote for the Pink Castle blog), but I only folded them over once, rather than twice like you would with a woven fabric. And for the sleeve and side seams, I didn't do anything at all to them. Knit fabrics don't fray! It's amazing!

Outside in my PJs.

Of course, once my always in a dress daughter saw it, it was all over, and now she's campaigning for "a dress pajamas" of her own. I've... been looking at some patterns. We'll have to see, though. I have some quilts to work on, after all.