Merino gowns

  

I managed to snap out of my sewing funk and made some little gowns for winter baby.  The first gown is made from a grey woollen jersey that I cut down. 

I used the kwik sew 2027 pattern in small, which is about 0-3months.  Because baby will be born in the middle of winter, I wanted a couple of warm woollen gowns that I could throw over them to keep them nice and warm in those cold nights.  The pattern calls for some facings for the slit opening in the top, and a ribbing neckband.  It seemed like far too much mucking around for me, so I bound the neckline and slit opening instead.  I had a plan to create a tutorial to do this, but then I forgot, so I'm afraid it will have to wait for another time.  Needless to say, it was quick and easy and I really like the finish.

I guess it is like a faux placket?

The pattern has buttonholes in the bottom, and I thought I would do all the details in a cool orange thread (like the stuff at the neckline).  Unfortunately, the orange thread proved too weak to actually make buttonholes, and as a result I had to rip back one of the buttonholes.  Also unfortunately, woollen fabric is not easy to rip back without making holes in it.  The end result is that I had to hand bind the buttonhole to try and cover the big holes that were now in the bottom of my gown, so one of the buttonholes is decidedly ragged.  Usually this kind of thing would really bother me, but I'm still really really pleased with how my gown came out.  It helps that I have a very co operative recipient.

Its extremely rare that I make something, and then turn around and make another one.  But that's exactly what I did.  This one is in brown merino.

The only other modification I made to this gown was to put the buttonholes on the side, rather than at the front.  Partly to cover my possibly dodgy buttonholes, but mostly because I think it works better to pull the ribbon from the side of the baby rather than the front.

Of course these buttonholes came out really well (yes I know my hem runs over the top of the buttonhole, but you can't everything).  I'm always pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to buttonhole with my sewing machine, given that my machine is older than I am.

Oh, and total cost (for both gowns) $1.  Oh yeah, I love upcycling.

Also hooking up with Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia.