Nightshirt Refashion

After seeing this nightshirt worn on the bloganista flickr group, I purchased one at Target on clearance for less than $4 for my first refashion. This top was intended to be my second entry for Rae's Top Week. The deadline was Friday 4/30. The master procrasinator in me just assumed that the deadline was Friday at 11:59:59, so after getting my daughter to bed that night, I scurried around to finish the top and upload the pictures to flickr. I was even going to be clever and name the top "the buzzer beater" or something...but checked Rae's blog and saw that the deadline was actually 8 PM. Oh well, that news allowed me to slow down and finish the top on Saturday with a little more care.

Fortunately, the nightshirt fit me perfectly across the shoulders, so no adjustments there. I cut off eight or so inches off the bottom and got started. First I opened up the collar seams and removed the collar, leaving just the band which I restitched. I took in the side and sleeve seams quite a bit.

On the placket, I removed all buttons and sewed the bottom two-thirds shut. Then from the fabric piece cut from the bottom, I created ruffles cut on the bias and sewed them right onto the placket. I like the current ruffle-trend but in small doses, so this worked well for me.

I used a hem facing and finished with a double-row of topstitching. With facings, I have been understitching (using Karyn's tutorial) which makes a big difference in the finished product. After cutting the sleeves to three-quarter length, I considered adding a bias cut binding, but decided to go with a simple casing for elastic.

This is an easy top to throw on for a comfy weekend day.