Tee Shirt Nightgown Tutorial

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Our Crafting Hope group is going to be making summer pajamas for kids that are staying with their Momma's at the county Women's Shelter.  I posted earlier about the generous pattern donation from Peek a Boo Patterns. I think those will be awesome pj for the kiddos. But I wanted a less intimidating option for those with a bit less sewing experience so I drafted up this tutorial for a quick nightgown out of an adult tee shirt.

This is my friend, Jessica's daughter. Isn't she adorable? Jess is an amazing painter and awesome seamstress with great style and an even greater heart. She's been my partner in crime in this Crafting Hope venture from the start. Thanks Jess!  If you haven't ever, check out her blog and her Etsy stores, k?

Here's what you need to make this quick little nightgown:

• One Adult sized tee shirt. I used a mens 2XL. You could probably get away with using a smaller shirt if you have a smaller kiddo.  The nightgown I made was a girls size 8 and the length from the 2XL was just right.
• Matching thread
• A ball point needle -- it's not a deal breaker if you don't have one but it will make sewing the knit fabric that much easier for you
• Your sewing machine and basic sewing supplies
• A tee shirt that fits your child (or a basic bodice pattern)

Cutting out your pieces:

1. Fold your tee shirt in half. Do your best to make sure all of the wrinkles are out and everything is good and even. This can be difficult if you are using a tee shirt that is worn and stretched out. Just do your best.  It's a nightgown, so it doesn't have to be perfect. I bought this tee for my husband in his early days of youth ministry when we were lobbying for a 15 passenger van to haul the students around in. It says, "Church vans move me" and it still makes me chuckle. Don't judge.
   
2. Once your adult tee is folded in half, fold your kids tee in half and place it on top of the adult tee. You are going to use this as a template for cutting out your nightgown.  You can see, I put the collar of the kids tee right under the collar of the adult tee so I could take advantage of the entire length of the shirt.
   
    
3. Take a deep breath. . . you are going to cut a basic A-line shape from the bottom of the tee shirt up to the arm pit area of the kid's shirt you're using as your pattern.  If it makes you feel better, you could use a marker to mark the line before you cut but again, this is a nightgown and doesn't require perfection.  You can make a wide A-line or a narrow A-line. That's all a matter of preference. I made mine fairly narrow because I don't like the idea of a lot of fabric flapping around. But that's just me.
   
4. Now, tuck the sleeve of your tee shirt up and get a feel for how the arm hole is curved. You are going to cut a very similar line from the arm pit up to the shoulder. 
   
5. Cut across the top of the shoulder following the shoulder line of your tee shirt.  Give yourself about an extra 1/2" above the tee shirt shoulder so that you have room for your seam allowance.
   
6. Finally, cut from the top edge of the shoulder down in a gentle curve along the kid's shirt neck hole. Give your kid back their tee shirt.  Separate the front of the nightgown from the back.
   
   On the front neckline, cut a slightly deeper arch.  You do not need to account for seam allowances along the neck or the arm holes because you will be binding them.
7. Very carefully, cut the ribbed neck band off of the adult tee. You could take the time to pick out the stitches to remove it if you prefer but I didn't want to take the time. You will use this around the neck of your nightgown.
8. Cut two strips of fabric that are 1 1/2" wide from the widest part of the adult tee sleeve.  You will use these to bind the arm holes.

Sewing things together:

1. It is best to use a ballpoint needle when sewing knits. Also, you will want to use a very narrow zig zag stitch. This will allow the stitches to move and stretch with the fabric.  A normal straight stitch will break. With all that in mind, put right sides together and sew the nightgown front to the nightgown back at one of the shoulder seams.
   
2. Lay the nightgown out flat, right side up. Take the collar binding that you cut off of the adult shirt and pin it to the right side of the nightgown (raw edges together). Sew the neck binding onto the nightgown with a 1/4" seam allowance. Cut off any extra binding. Press the binding up.  
   
   Top stich the neckline just under the binding seam.
   Make sure you use your small zig zag stitch since this is the one place on the night gown that will get the most stretching.
   
   
3. Pin, right sides together, at the second shoulder seam. Be sure you match up the edge of the neck binding and the neck binding seam. Sew the shoulder seam.
   
4. Take one of your 1 1/2" strips and fold it in half, wrong sides together. Iron.  Pin the binding on one of the arm holes, raw edges and right sides together. Sew the binding on with a 1/4" seam allowance. Trim excess binding. Repeat for the second arm.
   
   Iron seam bindings flat.
   
   Top stitch.
   
5. With right sides together, pin and sew up the side seams of the nightgown. I use about a 1/2" seam allowance. Turn rightside out and you are done!
   

Since you used the hem of the adult shirt as the bottom of your nightgown you have no hemming. And because knit doesn't fray you don't need to worry about finishing any of your seams.  Once you've made one of these and learned the process you should be able to whip them out pretty quickly.

Please let me know if you have any questions or any points need clarification.  If you leave a question in the comments, make sure you are not a no reply commenter or leave an e-mail address where I can answer you.

~Lindsay

Muslin Hanger Cover tutorial

These hanger covers are a nice way to dress up an ugly plastic or wire hanger.  They also would help hold those slinky fabric tops on the hanger as well.

The sky is the limit fabric wise. You could make it as simple or as funky as your heart desires.

So let's begin with the supplies:

 Your sewing machine, needles and coordinating thread.

Pattern

Scissors

Pins (if you're into that sort of thing)

an iron and ironing board

fabric--(6 yards of 45" wide fabric should make 25 covers)

For the Lily's Closet Project we have been asked to use unbleached muslin. Just in case you were curious, on the left is unbleached (and un-ironed, ha!) muslin, on the right is bleached muslin. See the difference?

The lovely folks at Lily's closet will take these simple blank slates and stamp them each with their logo for a consistent, sophisticated look through the whole store.

Your fabric for these does not need to be pre-washed.  Since I don't imagine these will be washed frequently you don't need to worry about them shrinking.  Also, if you don't pre-wash, you won't have to do as much ironing to get the fabric crisp enough for folding and cutting.  I am a big fan of ironing when it is necessary, but when it is not, I am not.

Print out your paper pattern.

You can find the PDF here . . .(edit: It seems the PDF is printing out small, if you go this route, add about 1/4" all around when you are cutting) or, e-mail me and I'll be happy to e-mail the PDF, or even snail mail a copy.

It will print on two sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  Make sure the box in the corner prints to the right scale and then cut out your pattern. You will have to piece the pattern together and tape it. It will need to overlap a bit. It should be easy enough if you match up the lines and the letters.

After you assembled the pattern, place it on your fabric.  I like to fold my fabric selvedge to selvedge in half and then in half once again.  This gives you four layers of fabric to cut through and will be about 11" wide if you are using 45" wide fabric. Place the long straight side of the pattern on the side of the fabric that has both folds.

I like to trace out lots of hanger covers on my muslin and cut them all at the same time. I use my disappearing ink marker, but you could use a pencil or even a sharpie.  These lines will be inside and won't be seen.

Cut around the pattern or on the lines you traced.  If you folded your fabric in quarters like I did, you will have two shapes like this one above once you open things up.

On the bottom of the hanger cover, turn under about 1/4 of an inch and press.  If you iron well, you won't need to pin this and that saves a ton of time.

Turn another 1/4" up to encase that raw fabric edge. Press that well and your bottom hem is ready to sew!

But wait!! Don't sew yet!

While your iron is hot and you are standing at the ironing board go ahead and iron down 1/4" on the top of the hanger cover.

. . . and another 1/4" to encase that raw edge.

Repeat the ironing of the bottom and top hems for the second piece of fabric.  If I am making a lot of these, I like to put one on top of another and iron two of them at once.  The folds aren't quite as crisp that way, but they are sufficient.

Now, you are ready to sew.

Start with your bottom hem.  Take a straight stitch along the top part of the hem.  This should be around 1/4" from the very bottom of your hem.

Once you've gotten to the end of the first one, grab the second.

I don't even waste time cutting my thread. I just keep my machine a humming and continue sewing the second hem.  It's a little trick I've learned from quilters who are sewing lots and lots of little pieces together at a time.  They call it chain piecing.

It may not seem like much, but if you are making, say one thousand hanger covers, these little time savers add up.

When you get to the end of that second hem you can clip your threads, including the line of thread in between them if you used my little time saving method above.

And move on to that top hem.  You can chain piece here too. Sew 'em both up.

You should now have two hanger cover halves that are nicely hemmed on top and bottom.  If your hems need it, you can iron them now, it's up to you.

Lay out your two pieces, right sides together. You are getting ready to sew around the curved portion, so if it helps you, you might want to pin these now.  I don't pin. I just live on the edge like that.

You want to sew around the edges of the hanger cover now, leaving the hemmed top and bottom edges open.  I use about a 1/4" seam allowance here.  That means your stitches should be about 1/4" from the edge of your fabric. Don't stress this, just find a line on your sewing machine to line the fabric up with and go for it.

This is what your seam should look like. One on the right from top to bottom and one on the left from top to bottom.  

You can see my stitching isn't perfectly 1/4" from the edge all around. No biggie. Just so you are close.

Again, the areas you hemmed (top and bottom) should not be sewn together. They are the opening to put the hanger in to. 

With your hanger cover still inside out, take your scissors and clip your curves. Be careful not to cut through your stitches here!

Clipping the extra fabric around the curves like this helps the finished product to lie flat and not wrinkle or bunch up.

There are four curves to be clipped, two at the "neck" and two at the "shoulder".

Once the curves are clipped, turn your cover right side out and press.

You're finished!

Only 999 more to go!

Again, if you are willing and able to help with the Lily's Closet hanger cover project, please e-mail me ASAP and let me know how many of these you think you can make and mail by the end of the month!

402CenterStreet at gmail dot com

Thanks!

~Lindsay

Pillowcase Dress Tutorial

Because the internet needs one more take on how to make these cute little dresses, right?

Actually, believe it or not I've had a hard time finding a tutorial that suites me so I have come up with my own hodgepodge method of sorts to share.

Sidenote: I wrote these instructions for the sewing novice. I don't mean to insult anyone's intelligence, I just want to help teach a new skill  to a few folks if I can. Experienced seamstresses, thanks for your patience!

Supplies:

• Pillowcase--Any old pillowcase will do. I've found all sorts of lovely ones at the thrift store but you can use new or one from your linen closet as well. The size of the pillow case doesn't matter so just pick something pretty.
• Double fold bias tape (aka seam binding)--get "Extra-Wide" if you've never used it before or make your own if you are a show off!
• Straight pins
• Scissors
• 1/4" Elastic
• A safety pin
• Thread--please match it to your pillowcase and seam binding. It will hide crooked stitches better!
• Sewing machine--this should go without saying, right? But also here I should include extra needles, bobbin, etc. Anything you need to make your machine run, k?
• Seam ripper--I hesitate to add this to the list because I am confident in your abilities--but even the most advanced seamstress has to rip out a few stitches here and there. It's best to be prepared.
• Iron and Ironing Board--Sewing is so much easier on crisply ironed fabric!
• Trim--this is optional but a little bit of rick rack or ribbon can really make this simple dress into something over the top cute.

The Process:


1.  Cut your pillowcase down to size. 

Sizing will be based off of the Little Dresses for Africa website since that's where I'm sending my dresses but you can feel free to measure your little one to get a more custom fit. Just measure from shoulder to where you want the dress to fall and add about 1", give or take, for the top elastic casing.

2 = 16 inches

3 = 19 inches

4 = 22 inches

5 = 24 inches

6 = 26 inches

7 = 28 inches

8 = 30 inches

9 = 32 inches

10 = 34 inches

11 = 36 inches

You want to cut off the end that is sewn together and leave the hem (that will be the hem of your dress later--big time saver!)

So, for example, if you have a 40" pillowcase and you are making a size 8 dress you will measure up from the hem 30" and cut straight across. You would be left with 10" of scrap fabric to add to that scrappy quilt you are planning to make "someday". Or is that just me?

2. Cut your arm holes. 

Fold your pillowcase in half so that the side seams meet and the top cut edge is lined up. 

On the side with the seams (not the center fold), measure down 4" from the top corner and over 2" from the top corner. My lines are a little hard to see but look there by the 12 on the left and at 2" on top.

Cut a curved line from point to point. You can mark this first with a disappearing ink pen if that makes you more comfortable. You could even use a Sharpie if you wanted since this part will eventually be hidden under the seam binding.

Your arm hole line should look sort of like a "J" with a slanted bottom hook if that helps. But don't sweat this. This dress is super roomy and very forgiving. Close totally counts. 

If you are totally anal, go HERE for a template. Go ahead. I won't judge. 

3. Make your elastic casing.  

Make sure your iron is hot and ready to steam! 

You are going to want to iron down about 1/4"  of the fabric on the top cut edge. Do this on both the front and the back of the dress. You are ironing the material wrong side to wrong side.

(The "wrong side" for sewing newbies is the side of the fabric that is on the inside of your garment--the side that is not meant to show. The outside of the garment is, conversely, called the "right side". See, this sewing thing is EASY!)

Now you want to iron down another 1/2" or so. Again, both on the front and the back and toward the wrong side of the fabric. See how you just hid that rough little edge? Give yourself a little pat on the back.

You can pin this down if you want. It's quicker if you don't but if it makes you more comfortable go for it! Me? I'm all about living on the edge. Pins cramp my style.

Get your sewing machine ready! You want to sew a straight line close to that bottom fold, say around 1/8" for you math-lovin' types.  

Repeat for both the front and the back of the dress.

A good way to help sew a straight line is to find a place on your presser foot to line up that fold line as you sew. If that doesn't work, put a little piece of masking tape on your machine to help line things up. See how my fold lines right up with the inside of the left fork of my presser foot? Yep, that's how I keep it on the straight and narrow.

Now you should have two nice little "pockets" on the top of your dress. This is your casing that will house a bit of elastic that will gather the top of the dress nicely.

Speaking of elastic, grab yours and measure 6" from the end and make a mark with a pen. No need to cut yet. 

Attach your safety pin to the end of the elastic and feed it through the casing until the safety pin comes out the other end. The safety pin gives you something stable to grab and push through the casing, otherwise you'd be working all night to wiggle that floppy elastic through on it's own.

Take the pin off of the elastic and sew the elastic down. It would be good to backstitch over it a few times just to make sure it catches.

(Your machine should have a button or lever you can easily push to make it stitch backwards--check your manual if you don't know how)

Now that the first end is locked and loaded, pull the other end of your elastic until you see the mark you made earlier and stitch that end down as well. Now cut the elastic.

Measure another 6" down from the cut end of the elastic and repeat these steps for the opposite side of the dress.

4. Bind the arms and make your ties

Now grab your seam binding. No matter what size dress you are making , cut two 38" long strips. Fold them in half and mark the middle with a straight pin.

See how the binding is folded in half? You want to envelope the raw edge of your armhole inside the fold of the binding. So line up the center of your binding (you just marked it with a pin, remember?) with your side seam and pin it.

Continue to put the raw edges of the arm hole into the seam binding and pin all the way to the top of your dress. Go ahead and do this around the whole arm hole. To make things easier on yourself when you are sewing, make sure your fabric is right up to the inside of the fold before you pin it.

To finish the raw ends of your seam binding, open it up, fold down about 1/4" and then refold it. Pin if you need to. Obviously, you'll need to do this on all four raw ends so unless you want to wing it as you sew, pins are good.

Now, let's get ready to sew again! Start at one end of your seam binding and sew the open parts together. You want to sew a short line along the top of that fold you just made and then turn and run your seam all the way down to the dress. Sew about 1/8" away from the open edge.

When you get to the dress, continue to sew approximately 1/8" away from the edge of the seam binding all the way around your arm hole. Our goal here is to catch the front of the seam binding, the pillowcase AND the back of the seam binding all with this one run of stitches. 

If you are nervous about doing this and catching all the layers, switch over to a zig zag stitch! Super cute way to "cheat" a little! (This is obviously not the dress I was working on. I grabbed it from the bag of lovelies that we whipped up last week. Credit here goes to Brooke.)

Take it slow. This is the hardest part of the process. If you get off of your mark a little there's no shame in ripping out the part that was messed up and doing it over.

Once you've sewn the binding to the dress, keep going to the end of the tie and then across the top fold just like you did the first time.

Repeat this for the opposite side and you are, for all intents and purposes, DONE!

Woo Hoo!

5. Trim!

If you want, you can add a bit of trim at the hem. It's totally optional but I am a trim-aholic. A little trim can go far to make your dress look more professional.

But, if you are just over it at this point, don't sweat the trim stuff and move on to step number six!

For most trims, I find it easiest to just sew right along the line of hem stitches. Super easy way to keep your trim straight and even.

Trimming isn't limited to a line of ribbon or rick rack around the hem. Get creative. Add a bow, maybe some ruffles or a flower from your scrap fabric, sew on some buttons or do a fancy applique! The sky's the limit!

6. Step back and admire your handiwork. Pat yourself on the back because you are so awesome!

And if you're sending this little number off to Africa, take a moment and say a prayer of blessing over the girl who will someday wear it.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you get stuck! I'll do my best to help out!

~Lindsay