Easy Nightgowns

As you may remember, Queen Sallie sent me some wonderful girlie material not to long ago. I used some of it to make curtains for the cardboard playhouse but there was still a ton left! After giving it some thought I decided to make some nightgowns for the girls. I have made them some before and didn't like how much time and effort they took (we've all been sick here and I have been feeling pretty lazy). So, I scoured the web looking for some ideas. Needless to say, I didn't really find what I was looking for but I found lots of moms out there that were looking for the same thing I was! I knew I wanted to make sleeveless ones but that requires an extra piece to be cut for the bodice and like I said I was being lazy. What to do... Then I was in Wal-Mart and found tank tops for $2.50 each....SCORE! I got several for each of the princesses and here's what I did.

First, I measured the princesses in the back from just below the neck to the length I wanted to use. Then I took the tank top and cut it about 1.5" below the arm hole. 

Then, I cut the material. To get that measurement I took the full length measurement subtracted the length of the cut tank top and then added 1.5". (The 1.5 is the seam and hem allowance I used. If you want to do a proper hem use 1.75" instead of 1.5".) For Princess Little the finished measurement was 23" and the tank top length was 5.5 so the bottom length I needed to cut was: 

23-5.5= 17.5 then 17.5+1.5=19". I cut my material 19" then trimmed the selvage and cut it in half. 

I put the right sides of the material together and sewed the side seams using a 1/2" seam allowance. Then, I pressed the seams open.

Next, using the longest stitch on my machine (a basting stitch) I sewed just the skirt 1/2" around the top. I always start and stop my stitching for hems and such along the side seam where it is less noticeable. I did the same for this but I did not overlap the ends so I could gather it easily. Once the basting stitch was done I held the two strings on the wrong side and pushed the fabric back until it couldn't be gathered any more.

Then, I tucked the tank top in (making sure the right sides of the material were together) and matched the side seams and pinned. 

Then, holding the pinned sides I gently pulled until the skirt and top were the same width. 

Next, I adjusted the gathers until they were evenly spaced across the width and pinned them in place for sewing. Then, I sewed the top and bottom together along the basting stitch.

 After removing the pins, I put a large zig zag stitch inside the seam allowance to keep the gathers in place and the raw edges from fraying too much. (I'm beginning to think I should look into a serger.)

Next, I ironed the tank top seam down toward the skirt and ironed the hem. I ironed the hem up about 1" and went around it with a small zig zag stitch. If I were making this for someone else's princess I would finish the hem properly by turning the raw edge under 1/4". Doing that would require me to add 1.75" in my calculation for the skirt cut.

Here's the final product. It was so easy I was able to make one for each of the princesses in under an hour!