Homemade nightie

I needed a new nightdress: my old one was developing holes where it had worn thin on the back. Remembering the works of art some girls created for needlework CSE at my school in the 1970s,  I wanted to make one myself, a long, old fashioned nightie, but hand sewing it. I found a pattern for beginners:

Now what fabric should I use? Cotton was recommended by the pattern envelope but I wanted something a bit warmer. Fleece was too warm, so I went for a kind of jersey fabric. As usual I bought everything from my local haberdashery, The Fent Shop. Oh how I love the Fent Shop!!! It's an Aladdin's cave of fabrics, threads, wool, curtains, embroidery supplies, buttons, ribbons, and hundreds of other things too. I can spend hours there just looking at it all! Best of all it's run in the old-fashioned way, with assistants who know what they're talking about, who add up how much you've spent by writing the sum on the brown paper bag your goods are packed in.


Anyway, back to the nightie....there were two kinds of fabric which seemed warm enough: one was blue with sheep on, but the one I chose was creamy with chickens on it! It was not an easy fabric to cut out or sew because it was so stretchy, but I persevered. I adapted the pattern, choosing to make the sleeves with cuffs on the end instead of elastic, and accentuating the buttonholes and some other bits with contrasting red thread which matched the chickens' red combs.


Soooooooooooo are you ready for this??? Ta da!!!!

I LOVE IT!!!!  It's just the right length and is so warm and cosy.


 I intended to use 4 bright red buttons but only had one, so Daughter and I searched my button box and chose some favourites. These were intended to be temporary, till I had chance to pop into town again but I decided I rather liked the eccentricity of 4 different buttons  ;-)

You won't find anyone else wearing a nightie covered in chickens with 4 different buttons, that's for sure!! Hee hee!!