I sewed this Newborn Gown for my own baby, one of just a few things I sewed for him. These photos are of him on his ginkgo leaf playmat, another item I sewed for him. However, once his sleeping gets more regular, I intend to sew much more!
You can get the free Celebrating Baby Newborn Gown pattern and accompanying tutorial from Stitched Together.
The pattern is intended to fit an 8 lb baby. My baby was born at 7 lbs 12 oz, and this is him wearing his gown when he was closer to 10 lbs. I thought it would take him a while to grow into it, but he was wearing it at just a couple weeks old! Call me naive, but I had no idea how fast babies can grow.
The pattern is very simple to cut out and follow. The front and back of the gown are similar pattern pieces where the front has a bit of a dip for the neck. Then you denote the front and back by how you overlay the pieces at the neck. The third pattern piece is the sleeve. The last pattern pieces aren’t even pattern pieces at all, just small rectangles for the neckline binding.
I used a cotton jersey that I had purchased from Fabricland last year. I initially bought 3 m, enough to sew a wrap dress for myself. However, I stopped sewing for myself (and have yet to restart!) after getting pregnant. Instead, I decided to use a metre of the fabric for this newborn gown. I also cut out some leggings for baby that I have yet to finish. Other than the usual thread, the only other notion that I needed was the elastic. Luckily I had a lot of that! I bought myself a roll of braided elastic from Leather & Sewing Supply Depot when I was sewing masks last year.
The newborn gown is like a long nightshirt with an elasticated bottom. This allows the gown to stay ‘closed’ while also giving parents easy access for diaper changes.
I don’t have a serger, but you can easily sew this newborn gown with a regular sewing machine. My machine is old and doesn’t have any fancy electronics. In order to change the stitch pattern, I clip in these plastic discs. For this project, I used a triple zigzag stitch to allow for stretch and prevent popped stitches.
Now a bit of back story: I finished sewing this baby gown just before my baby arrived! I was actually hand stitching the elastic and bottom casing hole closed on Monday as I wasn’t feeling well enough to pull out my sewing machine. It turns out those irregular contractions that bothered me all day were real labour and not just prelabour! The contractions returned on Tuesday morning, and my baby was born on Tuesday afternoon, 12 days early!
You can get the free Celebrating Baby Newborn Gown pattern and accompanying tutorial from Stitched Together.
The post Celebrating Baby Newborn Gown and Free Pattern by Stitched Together appeared first on Kiku Corner.
