Cozy Sleepwear

Stash Busting 2013:  Project #1

I did it! My first stash busting project of the year.

Fabric used:     3.2 metres of flannel. This fabric has been in my fabric stash for almost a decade. I picked it up when the city still had a Fanny Fabric outlet.

Buttons:            9, I have a bag of these that were recycled.

Trim used:        3 metres, I can't remember when this trim became part of my sewing stash.

Pattern used:   McCall's 8525, circa 1996. This was a recent fall 2012 find at a second hand store.

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Last summer I found a pattern for a loose fitting nightshirt, McCall's 8525. Alleluia! It is an out-of-print pattern that I happened to pick up last year for thirty cents. Can I hear another Alleluia?

I had the perfect fabric in my stash for this project, a milk and cookies print flannel. It has been sitting in my stash for ages.

I don't know why because it's the perfect fabric for life on the Canadian prairies. It has been kind of chilly the last couple of months. The kind of weather that you wish you could live in a flannel nightshirt, a pair of wool socks and curl up with a good book.


Back to the the fabric, I did have one problem. I had enough fabric according to the length calculation on the pattern envelope. But my fabric was only 39" (99 cm) wide. I had to do some creative thinking in order to have sleeves.

A little fabric surgery did the trick. I took some leftover fabric and stitched it to the selvage of another piece. Now I was ready to cut out the sleeve. I even managed to cut out pockets. It was a tight squeeze.

This is the perfect project to start off my stash busting New Year's resolution. Not only am I using up some flannel that has been buried in my fabric stash for years, so have the buttons. I omitted interfacing the nightshirt because I felt the weight and texture of the flannel fabric didn't really need any additional support.

And the trim has been in my stash for I don't know how many years. Maybe as long as the fabric? If I were not on this stash busting journey I might have very well overlooked the possibility of adding piping trim. This stash busting is kind of fun!

Let's talk about the trim! I added a small ivory piping to the pockets, neckline and front pieces of the nightshirt. And it was super easy.

The piping is quite thin. This made the invisible zipper foot the perfect tool to attach it to my fabric. And the invisible zipper foot worked like a charm.

The trim was also stitched to the facing. Then the stitching was used as a guide to sew the facing to the nightshirt. I continued to use the invisible zipper foot for sewing the facing piece to the nightshirt.

I love the look of the trim on the edge of the front. And this pattern is a keeper. Well, back to my book.

Happy Sewing!