Can you transform a grandma style nightgown into something you'd actually wear with only minimal sewing skills? Hell yes. If you're looking for a way to upcycle all of your vintage sleepwear you have lying around, then I have a solution for you!
My job writing for a sleepwear and underwear company gives me a lot of access to sleepwear and underwear, surprisingly. Recently, in a DIY frenzy, I had an idea to further my dedication to wearing pajamas during the daytime. I’ve written a whole post dedicated to wearing sleepwear as daywear and usually, unless someone actually reads my blog, I get away with it. What if I found a way to flip those voluminous, billowy old lady gowns into something I could actually wear?
I don’t actually wear traditional pajamas, so I find it pretty easy to justify wearing sleepwear during the day. I tend to sleep in oversized T-Shirts that I’ve stolen from ex-boyfriends simply because they provide full freedom of leg movement. So, when I saw this nightgown with gorgeous sleeve detailing in the company store I was obsessed with flipping it. This gown from P-Jamas is something that I would never sleep in considering how much fabric there is, and it seemed like a waste to hide all of that gorgeous smocking away in my apartment where I live alone.
With time, dedication, and a lot of Liquid Stitch, I did it. I cut the nightgown in half and turned it into chic separates! And with a lot of patience, you can do it too, pretty damn easily. Here’s how I did it.
Pick your nightgown. Purchase one at a vintage store or rob your grandma. I personally got mine for $5 because I believe someone had worn and returned it.
This one was originally $188, so I think I got a pretty good deal. Mine is a nice minty green. A few notes on choosing a good gown to Frankenstein:
You’ll be chopping this up, so make sure to choose something with a loose, long skirt (the longer the better if you are prone to making mistakes) and detailing at the top that makes it look unique. A lot of really expensive sleepwear has really fancy details like genuine mother of pearl buttons or hand smocking.
Choosing something with buttons will make it seem like you bought a really expensive button down. It’s best to choose something with a partial button placket, rather than something that fully unbuttons down the front. It’ll spare you the detail of trying to figure out how to sew a button flap closed.
Old ladies like to sleep in style, so make sure you put that to use!
I put on my nightgown and marked where I wanted the top to end once I cut off the skirt. I left about an inch for seam allowance. Then I just cut it straight across. Now you’ll have two pieces.
Finishing the top is very easy, Ridiculously so. If you are good with a sewing machine, just give the top a straight hem. If you have a steady hand, you can even hand stitch it. I have neither of these skills, so I opted for Liquid Stitch.
Liquid Stitch is essentially like glue for fabric that is great for terrible seamstresses like me. It claims to be machine washable once dried and to hold really well. So far I have found this to be true! It is also great because I am lazy. Plus, I know that I tend to tuck all of my blouses in, so it didn’t matter if I completely messed this up.
I pinned the hem in place and then just glued all the way around. Making the top is a project that will last you less than an hour, provided you’re not an idiot.
Turning the bottom of the gown into a skirt was a lot harder, but somehow I made it work. And as long as you don’t look too closely at the interior, it makes for a great outfit.
Additional tools you will need are:
A wide band of elastic. This will be the exposed waistband, so choose a normal color.
Needle and thread
Liquid stitch again
Measuring tape
Math skills
Patience
See, the problem with the skirt is that your resultant fabric loop from when you cut off the top part is probably a good deal wider than your waist, and I am an idiot. Essentially I made tiny pleats in the skirt and sewed it all down to a very wide panel of elastic. I wasn’t sure what to do with the extra fabric otherwise.
As an earlier step, you will need to make your elastic waistband. I got a band from the fabric store that was somewhere between two and three inches wide.
Wrap it around your waist and determine where you’d like it to sit and how long the band will need to be before you cut it. Depending on how much you trust yourself, pull the band slightly tighter when sewing it closed, that way it will stay in place without strangling you.
Sew the band closed at the ends. Do not twist it. I used a combo of Liquid Stitch and hand sewing because I wanted to make sure it was really secure.
Lay the fabric out flat and measure how wide it is at the top. If you want to make the skirt shorter, then do some cutting.
I’m not sure how ruching is actually constructed, so I opted to make pleats by folding the fabric on itself. I wanted to make all of the pleats even, and since I am bad at math, I opted to make each pleat about an inch wide. This proved easier than trying to divide things by three or five, which proved to be too much for me.
The loop was 60” in circumference, so I marked off every inch with a marker so I could make the folds. If you want your project to be more successful, use a pen or fabric chalk as the marker definitely ended up showing through. I am not proud of this.
By folding along the inch dots I had made, I knew that each pleat had the same amount of fabric, being an inch wide when folded with an inch between each pleat.
You will pin your skirt to your waistband and steadily make pleats around the circumference. You need to pin them together with the wrong side facing you.
I pinned down every fold so I could make sure I hadn’t ruined the math. Then I very painstakingly sewed each pleat down with a shaky box stitch. I did not sew all the way around as I am lazy and also wasn’t sure how that would affect the waistband.
Instead I sewed each pleat and afterwards glued everything down with Liquid Stitch. Combining these two methods made me feel like my project was less likely to fail.
If you use the original hem of your nightgown, you are now done! Mine had a very cute little lettuce hem, and I didn’t want to mess that up. In the end, I am very happy with the results.
I am glad I decided to destroy a nightgown for this, and I love how unique it looks and how comfy it is. That's the benefit of transforming sleepwear... it'll always be insanely comfortable.
The top looks great and it kind of has a piratey vibe to it. The skirt was difficult and you can still see some of the marker dots but I love it all the same. To paraphrase the great poet Macklemore, I took your grandma’s style. And I think it looks damn good.
A disclaimer: I work for the Andra Group and write for HerRoom, who sells the gown I DIYed. My opinions on nightgowns and sleepwear and anything else are mine and mine alone. They don't reflect the views of the Company. Don't buy expensive sleepwear just to chop it up. This is simply a way to transform a piece you ordinarily would have no use for. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the Company.
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