Butterick 8247 : Versions Dos and Tres

There are many adjectives I could use to describe our days here, but slow is generally not one of them.  Yet that pretty much sums it up as of late.  The kids have been on a (three week!) break from homeschool.  Dan's been home on vacation since just before Christmas.  We've had loads of unstructured free time, we've been staying up altogether too late, and sleeping in like it was our job.  While it's been a nice change of pace, Dan and I both agreed we're ready to get back to life-as-usual.  After several weeks of slow, I'm starting to feel a little restless.   I think that means it was a good vacation, restorative enough to make us want to jump back in.

This is all to say that I haven't done any sewing since my mad dash to the Christmas Eve pajama finish line.  In the flurry that was cutting, sewing, serging and sewing on of buttons, there wasn't enough time leftover for photos and detailed blog posts.  But I really enjoyed making the nightgowns (and the pajamas for Jude), so I didn't want to overlook them here, even though they are so last year by now.  (Lame?  Sorry.)

The moment I laid eyes on Butterick 8247, I envisioned three Christmas nightgowns for my girls -  coordinating, but not matchy-matchy.  So when the pattern arrived in the mail, I was puzzled when I discovered it only came in one size.  I quickly learned that vintage patterns (or at least this pattern) are sold by size, individually.  So it was back to Etsy where I thankfully found the pattern in both Tarikua and Indigo's sizes, too.

Since I was new to vintage patterns, I felt a little uneasy about how it would all come together.  Each nightgown required quite a lot of fabric - and time.  But for the most part it was smooth sailing.  A big part of that was because the pattern's measurements were right on.  (Sadly, as I'm sure many of you have discovered the hard way, this isn't always the case.)  All three girls wore one size down from their age/normal size but I had to add quite a lot of length to both the dress and the sleeves (between 2 to 6 (!) inches depending on the girl).  It's always easier to cut off some length than to have it be too short, that's my motto.

I'd say the instructions were on par with what you'd find from most big-box patterns today.  They were somewhat cryptic and I found myself deviating from them quite a lot and doing it my own way. But I found it to be a fun challenge, more than frustrating or insurmountable.

I bought the fabric (Dear Stella Confetti Sparkle Metallic) for the girls' nightgowns after seeing two awe-inspiring holiday dresses : this gold dot geranium by Kristin and this gorgeous navy hanimi dress by Cherie.

Indigo chose the cream fabric with the larger gold dots.  She said it would make her feel like an angel.

For Tia, we decided on the red with the mini gold dots.  I have to be honest and admit I didn't care for the sheen of the fabric with the smaller dots.  It looks kind of snake skin-ish to me.  I guess that's one of the problems with having to order online - some of those details are lost on the screen.

But Tarikua loved it and that's what matters most.

When Kristin blogged about the geranium dress she made, she wrote about using metallic thread for the topstitching.  I knew my girls would love this touch.  So glam.  Kristin recommended I use the metallic thread on top only, using regular thread in my bobbin since the metallic thread can break pretty easily.  I wouldn't have thought of that, so I was thankful for the advice.  It worked well!

I generally don't love sewing pajamas.  Doing so is pretty much on par with mending in my book.  But I genuinely loved making these.  They were different from what I've seen at the store and a change from our normal pj go-to: cotton pajama pants and a t-shirt.   When I see my girls wearing them, my heart wants to explode.  It doesn't get much better than that.