Mommy-Made Gifts, a Nightgown for My 3 Year Old

We're officially 6 days from my daughter's 3rd birthday! Oh boy.... I'm so excited! I forget how much I love birthdays until one is close! :)

I really like making gifts for people - Last year, for Lucy's birthday I made a Tutu for Ellie/Carolina (See some pictures here) and a chef hat (See pictures here), oh and a cute baby carrier - but I don't think I have any pictures of it (yet). For some reason I didn't write a post about her home-made gifts last year, oh well. :)

Confession: Michael didn't get any homemade gifts for his 1st birthday... I'll have to work on that this year, maybe I should start working on it sooner than later since his little sibling will arrive a month before his 2nd birthday!

I recently recommended a show to friends on Facebook, "The Great British Sewing Bee" - all 4 episodes are on YouTube and are absolutely delightful. I learned so much about sewing just from watching the show! One thing I learned is that there is something called a "rolled hem" (I'd never heard of it before) and after some research I found that there is a special sewing foot that helps when sewing with this technique. And then, after searching through my sewing accessories - I found one (comprehensive readers will remember my excitement from this post)! Sadly, it didn't fit onto my modern sewing machine (my antique one is not working these days) but I found another foot, that would fit my machine, on Amazon (love that place!).  And with my new foot in hand, I began working on my project! :) 

Lucy loves nightgowns (and needed another set of PJs) so when I found this tutorial I knew I wanted to make it for her. I'd recommend the tutorial to YOU too, I found it easy to follow! I'm definitely keeping my eye out for pillowcases at thrift stores now! I didn't have a pillowcase on hand so I bought 1 yd of fabric and that was enough for my project. I made the skirt pretty full, so you might be able to get away with a bit less yardage if you wanted to. Here are a few of my notes for the next time I make this pattern: 

1. Because I don't have a serger, I used french seams on the whole nightgown - this made the final product closer to a 3T (The patten says it's about a 4T) 
2. Next time, I'll cut the back wider (More length toward the middle of the back) to allow for more creativity with the closure in the back. 
3. Used 1 Yd of fabric, and cut 20x44 for the skirt
4. I made Bias "tape" for the neckline and used some of the extra to make a "ribbon" to help with the button closure in the back. 
5. I'd like to work on making the "gathering" look more even next time. It looked so nice but then I finished the french seam and the gathers didn't "transition well" under the second seam. 

Here's the finished product! 

It's NOT perfect - but I learned a lot when working on it and am thrilled with the results! 

I practiced the Rolled Hem technique on a few scraps before attempting it on the "real thing" and I'm glad I did. I still had to rip out the first seam I did on a sleeve but I adjusted my machine and then it worked great! :) 

 Here's the finished product - a rolled hem on the little cap sleeves of the nightgown. :) So small and delicate!

I have no self control. I was so excited to see the nightgown on Lucy that she got her gift yesterday! :) 

 The cap sleeves are darling! 

 She and Ellie loved it!

She wore it for dinner yesterday, on a walk and then slept in it! Haha She woke up this morning and told me she wants to say in her new-jammies all day! That's all the thanks this mommy needs. :) 

I'm working on one more mommy-made gift, hopefully I'll finish during nap time today! Being creative makes me so happy! Are you the same way? Have you learned any new sewing techniques lately?