DIY hospital gown

I decided that I would make my own hospital gown for when our baby boy is born.  I will preface with this:  my sewing skills are VERY basic.  I learned to sew from my Grandma Lois, who taught me how to make simple Barbie doll clothes, and my aunt Eileen.  I took one year of Home-Ec and learned a little bit more, but I use my skills only on occasion and I don't usually do any fancy stitching.  I tend to stay with craft projects, curtains, pillows and such.  However, I did make about 30 lavender-peppermint eye pillows for my Yoga class a few years ago and almost 20 Christmas stockings for all of the little kids in the family.

I googled DIY hospital gown and I found this link:
http://kmshomecreations.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/diy-hospital-gown-maternity/

It's a blog entry with some photos and tips about making your own hospital gown.

Here's the link to the printable pattern:
http://www.lazygirldesigns.com/hospitalgown.php

These are the supplies I started with, plus my sewing machine:  3 yards of fabric, one roll of ribbon, thread, velcro and snaps.  I think I spent about $30 at Hobby Lobby.

I varied from the pattern just a wee bit.  Instead of making a left and right back, I made two rights to make the garment a little larger, a tip included on the pattern.  I have about 9 weeks to go and I don't know exactly how big I will get, but I wanted to make sure I had room to grow.  I taped all of the printed pieces of the pattern together without making the lines connect.  If you look at the photo, you will see gaps in the lines, I did this to make it longer.  However, it was still a little short for me; I'm 5'8" and it was above the knee.  So, I decided to add a pleated extension to the bottom.  I don't have a serger so I used a 1/4" hem all the way around and I doubled it over so there were no raw edges exposed, so technically it was a 1/2".  The pattern called for using ties along the back to close it, but I didn't think laying on a bunch of knots would be comfortable so I used velcro, each piece cut to 4.5" long, spaced 3" apart and I left about 10" without velcro at the bottom.  I also ended up not using the snaps because those little boogers were too tough to get separated.  Who wants to deal with that?  I was going to use them along the top of the shoulder instead of velcro, but just went with velcro in the end.  The pleated extension added and extra 10", but after hemming and matching it gave a little more than 8" and that was perfect.  The pleat was not included in the pattern, I just did it freehand.

Here it is before I added the ribbon and the pocket.

After I added the bottom ribbon trim.

And here is the finished product!  I know you can barely see the pocket over the right breast, but I assure you it's there.  And, I will add that this is the first time I've ever made a buttonhole.  Like EVER!  I told you my skills are basic.  The pattern calls for a 4" buttonhole under the pocket (in case you're hooked up to a heart monitor, the wires have a place to go in), and my sewing machine has a buttonhole foot, but it won't make a 4" buttonhole.  I figured I could straight stitch an outline and then go back over it with a tight, short zig zag.  A quick text to my aunt Eileen confirmed it and after practicing on a scrap piece, it only took a few minutes to finish.  Originally I was going to sew on the ribbon, however I ended up using Heat-N-Bond tape and it worked beautifully!  No puckering and it lays flat and smooth.  The bottom ribbon is bonded all the way across the front and back.  The top ribbon is bonded only along the front, leaving the back free to tie and cinch up a little.  I did stitch the top piece under the arms at the end of the bond tape, just to make it more secure.  If you use ribbon, make sure you burn or serge the ends to keep it from raveling.

 

This was a fairly easy DIY project, but I'm slow because I don't sew very often and this is the first time I've used a pattern in several years, so it took me a little longer than most.  But, as I got into it my knowledge came back to me and I didn't have any trouble.  It's not good enough to enter in the county fair or anything, but I think it's pretty and it will look good in pictures when our little man is wearing his OSU onesie!  :)