Adding Lace to a Sweet Baby Gown

Julie is back on the blog today with her adorable baby gown. You might remember that Julie was here with her lovely Juliet Dress and tips for making July Flowers. You can purchase many of Julie's beautiful creations from her etsy shop, Lamond Traditional, so check it out! Now, here is Julie!

I was lucky enough to receive a kit to make this little bishop-style nightgown from Lisa as a gift. The pattern used is Baby’s Breath by Judith Marquis. I love the fact the kit came ready pleated and contained everything I needed to complete the little garment.

There is enough fabric included in the kit to make the largest size gown and to make either the gown or the bunting version. I chose to make the largest size gown and followed the pattern directions to do so.

Lisa had included a contrast fabric for the neck bias and enough of this to line the bunting base if you were making that version. Also included were the floss colours matching the fabric to smock with.

I made a couple of variations to my gown. I have a lot of lace in my stash and although I could have kept this gown gender neutral, decided to make it for a girl and so that meant I could add lace! So, once the gown front was finished, I added lace to the front button band.

I used a 5/8 inch wide lace edging that I gathered (using the header threads). As I didn’t want the lace too ruffled I used just under twice the length of the front band for each side. I evened the gathers out along the length and then with a small zig-zag stitch, machined the lace on either side of the band, folding under ½ inch at the top and bottom to neaten the edges.

As the front had some lace, I felt the sleeves would benefit from the girly touch too, so I rolled and whipped (video tutorial here) the same lace to the straight edge of the sleeve.

I didn’t gather the lace this time as I gathered the sleeve by zig-zagging, using large stitch width, over 1/8 inch elastic, having first secured one end with a couple of straight stitches. I then pulled the elastic up to size and secured the other end with a few straight stitches. I then seamed the side seams as directed in the pattern.

I now have a sweet girly nightgown ready to give to a new mother as a baby gift!