Blue nightdress

I have had some pale blue winter twill for a while now - intending to make a winter nightdress for Brigid. As her birthday, and Christmas here in Australia, are both in Summer, it always seems churlish to make her a winter garment. So, as I have been knitting hats for her family, I thought it a good chance to make her nightdress, in lieu of a hat.

I had to search a bit to find a nightdress pattern for a 10 year old with sleeves, but eventually lit on The Pillow Fight  from AS&E Issue 48 . It was, unfortunately, one of the issues I don't have, so I bought the pattern from Country Bumpkin. The pattern was designed for poly-cotton interlock and had ribbed cuffs and neck. I have only used ribbing a couple of times, but thought it would work really well for the openings on this nightdress even though the main fabric isn't interlock.

 I used the smocking design in the pattern, but adapted the colours a little to suit the all-blue fabric.











I replaced a yellow with a mauve for the caps on the diamonds. There was a great tip for stitching these caps - enabling the thread to be carried all the way across without reducing the stretch.

I also substituted shades of pink that blended with the blues.











I discovered the sleeves were missing from the pattern - an oversight, I imagine, relating to the size of the sleeve piece needing larger printing when the pattern was converted from the magazine. A phone call to Country Bumpkin got it printed and to me within 3 days - much appreciated.

In the meantime, I found another sleeve pattern which I adapted successfully. As my sleeves do not have the stretch of the poly-cotton interlock for which the pattern was designed, it was probably a good thing to use a dress pattern with slightly wider sleeves, as I did.


Brigid was very happy with the end result - and it is nice to give something at a time when it can be used immediately. The nights are certainly now cool enough for winter twill.