Sewing Bird, today we’ll work on a variation of the Mary Frances nightgown.

My issue with the nightgown is that I’d like to be able to make outfits for the dolls of friends’ children. Ribbons seem hard to tie and easy to lose so I set forth to make an elastic-version of this nightgown.

The fabric I used was once again a double gauze. This time it had a one-directional print.

I had to join the fabric so that both sides of the nighty would have right-side up hedgehogs.

Once again I used a French seam to join the pieces together but, as you see, I’m using my machine. Then I hemmed the nighty.

I clipped the neck just as before but this time I stitched an eyelet trim in place and made a channel that I could pull elastic though. I basted the folded eyelet in place, stitched at the edge of neck and then stitched a channel. Same with the sleeves.

At the back of the neck and at the bottom of the sleeves I finished the channel so that the elastic could be threaded through.

 

I then stitched the elastic together and hand-stitched the edges of the channels closed. When the elastic grows old, if this nighty lives that long, the end of the channels can be opened again to replace the elastic!

Yay!

To add to Snow’s look I altered the bird she came with.

I didn’t like the raw edges showing so I unpicked the stitching and turned it right sides together. I then restitched it, leaving a gap to pull it right side out. Finally I re-stuffed it and stitched the opening closed.

And that’s the first of many variations. That’s the great thing about sewing. Once you’ve completed a pattern correctly you can revisit it to make variations.