Sewing Sleepwear

One spring day perhaps eighteen or nineteen years ago, I went shopping for a new summer nightgown. I was looking in Toronto's massive Eaton Centre, where one would expect there would be a good selection of pretty much anything, but though I spent a few hours scouring every possible store, I couldn't find anything I liked. I got frustrated. And then it dawned on me... perhaps I could make myself a new nightgown. I took the northbound train to Yonge & Bloor, where there was (at that time) a Fabricland, picked out and purchased a pattern and a fabric I liked, and was on my way home in half an hour. 

I've never bought any sleepwear for myself since that day. I sew my own cotton nightgowns for summer and plaid flannel pajama bottoms for winter, and pair each pair of pajama pants with a thrift shop long-sleeved t-shirt in a coordinating colour. My practice is to keep my nightwear drawer perpetually stocked with three nightgowns and three sets of pajamas, replacing individual items whenever necessary. I reuse the same nightgown and pajama pants sewing patterns over and over, which helps keep the replacement cost down to under $25 per nightgown/pajama set, and they always last for years. The result is attractive, comfortable, inexpensive nightwear. I'll just add here that I also do have a lovely little spring green embroidered silk chemise that was given to me years ago and that I keep for, um, "special occasions", but there's been a sad dearth of special occasions in my life of late years, sigh.  

This is the cover illustration from Simplicity 9505, which is the nightgown pattern I bought all those years ago. My pattern is considerably the worse for the wear, though it's still usable. I used option C, which is the short-sleeved nightgown you see on the right. I'm not sure how many times I've made it up -- perhaps seven or eight times? It is so easy and inexpensive to make, requiring only 1.5 metres of fabric, some elastic, and maybe two hours of work. I still like the pattern, but a few years ago it began to feel as though it was getting to be too young for me in style. And also too short -- it's never been safe for me to bend over in it. While I may be single, I do need to be considerate of my neighbours, who are nice people and deserve better than to be subjected to an entirely unsolicited peep show every time I run out to put out the garbage. I decided it was time to invest in a new nightgown pattern, one more suitable for a woman approaching her fifties.

After browsing through the pattern catalogues in the spring of 2021, I decided on the pattern you see depicted above, which is Butterick B5792, view B, which is the one in the middle of the front row  It's more work and expense than the old nightgown pattern (note the tucked bodice, and the lace and ribbon detailing, and it also calls for bias tape around the neck and sleeve openings), but I thought it was rather pretty. I might be using some of the style options at some point too. I could use view D with short sleeves if I want to make a plain nightgown with no ribbon trimming. I'm even thinking of making myself a long-sleeved plaid flannel nightgown in option D the next time I need a new pajama set. 

These are the patterns I chose for my new set of nightgowns: a green pinstripe, a tone on tone cream print, and a peach and gold floral. I'm not crazy about the floral and wish I had kept shopping around for something I liked better, but I can live with it.

I had some difficulty finding the beading lace for around the neckline. I think ribbons are pretty, but I don't like lace very much, as I find it too fussy and Victorian-looking. I don't think there's any lace in my entire wardrobe except for some narrow trim on some of my underwear. I didn't like the only beading lace Fabricland carried in the required width. I toyed with the idea of knitting or crocheting some beaded lace, and I may do that next time, but for this set of nightgowns I ordered 4 yards of a cream cotton eyelet lace from an Etsy vendor. Even with shipping the eyelet lace cost less than the Fabricland option, and it looked more like a ribbon than like lace.

Here's the green pinstripe nightgown, made in size medium with slightly larger than called for seam allowances. I couldn't find green ribbon in the right shade for it as I had hoped, so I just used a cream ribbon. 

I couldn't find peach or apricot ribbon as I wanted for the floral, and had to go with a ribbon that was a cream with a slightly peachy tone to it. But again, it looks fine as is.

Here's the cream one. I rather wished I'd gone with a crimson ribbon for it, but the cream on cream look is fresh and pretty enough. 

I had approximately a package and a half of single fold bias tape which I had thought would be enough to do these three nightgowns, but I ran short. It would have cost me $6.50 in TTC fare to make the round trip to the nearest Fabricland just to buy more, so I improvised, and made my own bias tape, which I used to finish the armholes on the cream nightgown. I had never made bias tape before, but it went so well I'm going to be keeping the technique in mind for the future. It saves money, and it can look better to have matching bias tape made out of the garment's fabric than to choose from the limited set of colours commercially made bias tape comes in. 

And now I have three new knee-length cotton nightgowns demure enough and classic enough to be age appropriate, and hopefully also airy enough for Toronto's hideously hot summer nights.