Three sewing projects for girls

I made two tops and one nightgown for my niece recently. (Well, one of the tops and the nightgown were made before Christmas, and I made the second top last month – I have so many more things I’d love to make, but sadly no time to execute anything!).

I started with this flannel nightgown. The pattern was very easy, but had one MAJOR drawback: the neckline is MUCH too small! I realized this only after I had cut my pieces, so I asked my sister for measurements, then altered the pattern as you can see on the photo below to make the neckline bigger. After that it looked decent, though I feel like the bias tape edging is a bit wider than what I would have liked… I used Michael Miller’s Flannel in Robin in the Hood Coral and coordinating bright pink double fold bias tape.


The second top I made was this Ice Cream Dress, though I made the blouse version because I didn’t have enough fabric for the dress. My niece’s favorite color is purple, so I used the rectangular tunic I had once made from a bedsheet, since I wasn’t wearing it anymore, and coordinating scrap fabric from a pair of pajama pants in my discard pile for the pocket and button loop.


Finally, I made a Lucy Tunic. The pattern was easy to follow and made an adorable tunic! I was originally looking for something in dark green with a more whimsical coordinating fabric, but could not find anything that worked. So I ended up using the reverse strategy when I found this whimsical hedgehog print and, at the suggestion of the shop owner, went with a lime green coordinating cotton. I modified the pattern a bit by throwing in an adorable circular pocket on the front using this tutorial – and I wish I could get away with wearing one of those too! Come to think of it, the Lucy Tunic does come in women’s sizes… Anyway, if you make it non-reversible, do take out the side-seam pockets from the lining, though – I didn’t, and I feel like it’s a bit too heavy. Also, something interesting happened: my sewing machine is a modern one now, with a computer for a brain, and it comes with a button presser foot that basically makes button holes all by itself. I thought this was fantastic, right up until I tried setting it up for a pair of buttons I had in mind for this tunic (the same ones as for her blue Petite Facile sweater). And lo and behold, they were too big for the button presser foot! I felt like the other stitches on the machine didn’t allow me to make solid buttonholes manually, so I ended up using smaller buttons from my stash. But yeah, score one for the old machines, I guess. It turned out nicely nonetheless – now I just hope she likes hedgehogs!