Vintage Pajama Party in the sewing room

After deciding I wanted to be involved in Carla from Tiny Angry Crafter's vintage pajama sew along, I went home to see if I already had pattern I could use......

And wouldnt you know it, I found this little gem!

Not sure why it uploaded sideways.....

Its a vintage simplicity 1850 in a 34" bust. I will need to grade up, but it is not an overly complicated pattern, so that will be simple enough. According to vintage pattern Wiki, this pattern is from 1956. I think this is one of the bunch I picked up from a local op shop for 60c a pattern. It is selling on etsy for between $7 and $18. So not a bad find.


The hardest part if this challenge was finding a fabric. I needed something light and breathable, but not sheer (as we rent out rooms in our house) most of my cottons are too stiff for a nightgown, and my satins too bright (plus I want to use them to make evening dresses) I would also need around 3m according to the pattern. I found this slinky black and white polka dot fabric at one of my local op shops for $2 for 2.6m (which turned out to be exactly how much I needed)

This nightgown has a lot of gathering in it, so when I measured the pattern pieces for the 34" bust the back was 16" and the front was 14" making it 60" in total. I figured a would want almost double my bust measurement to get the same gathered affect, so I made my pattern pieces 20" and 18" wide, making it a total of 76" inches for my 43" bust.

My Altered pattern Pieces. Yes they are a bit on the short side, lol my tissue paper isn't that big, so I have just traced and made alterations to the top and have a note on the pattern piece to add 25" of Length to the bottom of each piece

This shows how much width I have added

This gives you an idea of the length of the original Pattern piece

All my pattern pieces cut out (and interfacing attached to 1 back and 1 front facing)

Sewing binding along the armholes

Gathering up the neckline

Sewing the front interfaced facing to the back interfaced facing

I had a little mishap with the iron melting away some of my interfacing, woops!

Sewing the gathered front piece to the neckline. Do the same for the back piece

I then sewed lace right around the outside of the neckline

With right sides together, sew both sides of of the neckline together,  around the inner edge. 

Turn the neckline right side out

Press and pin the outer edge under for a neat finish

Pinning the top of the neckline facing in place

I then top stitched the top of the neckline in place on top of the lace, then sewed up the sides with french seams, so they will easily survive the wash, and then turned up the hem twice and sewed it up.

Quick mirror selfie. Ive tied a ribbon around the waist similar to the pattern envelope.

And a regular selfie

This has turned out to be a very comfy airy nightgown, and while I wasnt originally sure I liked the print of the fabric for a nighty, now that it is finished, I love it! The pattern was a very easy sew, so I will probably use it again in the future. Hopefully I will get some better photos of the nightgown soon, in time for the new extended deadline for the sew along, which is now December 13th. I might even have time to find some fabric and make the matching robe!

Dixie