Adult T-Shirt Turned Baby Gown

 I have decided to attempt participating in the Kids Clothes Week Challenge over at elsiemarley.com.  Unfortunately, I am out of town for a family funeral today.  I am going to use my hour of time devoted to sewing kid's clothes today to planning what I will work on this week.  For now, here is a project that I started a few weeks ago, but couldn't share until the "big news" was out.

 When I first found out that I was having a boy, there was one sewing project that I KNEW I wanted to try.  I wanted to upcycle adult t-shirts (preferably with really interesting graphics) into newborn gowns.

 

Lydia had some of these newborn gowns and I decided that they were my absolute favorite infant clothing item, especially when baby is really little and requires LOTS of diaper changes.  Unfortunately, they are a dress shape and I haven't seen a lot that I like for a little boy.  I had seen a few tutorials online, but I am not one to follow a pattern, so I just dug out one of Lydia's gowns and used it to make a pattern.  I started by laying everything out to decide on the placement of the design.

 

I cut the new gown with about an inch of extra space for the seam allowance. 

 

I cut the shoulders so that the flaps could overlap at the neckline.

Once I had one side figured out, I mirrored that shape to cut out the other side and then to cut out the back.

Here is one finished gown shape from one t-shirt.

 I used the finished edge of the adult short sleeve to create an infant sleeve with a finished edge.  The only other thing that I needed to figure out was the binding around the neckline.  I couldn't come up with anything for the Mickey Mouse gown, so I switched to working on a different shirt/gown.  I had a blue hula shirt and a few old socks that matched it.

I needed a continuous long piece of trim for the neckline, so I opted for the larger sock. I decided to cut it on a diagonal and see what happened.

I got lucky and ended up with 3 long strips.  Next time I can probably figure it out so that I have 2 long strips, one for the front neckline and one for the back.

I also ended up with the ankle ribbing unused and decided to save it for later.

Here is the initial sewing on the neckline.  I sewed it to the right side and then folded it over for a finished edge.

Before I sewed the sleeves, I stitched half of the ankle cuff to the end of the sleeve.  I then flipped it back on itself and tacked it down so that it caught in the side seam and created one of those pockets that can be used to cover baby's hands if needed.

Before I sewed the side seams, I used the bottom edge of the original shirt as an elastic casing.  I just checked the length of the elastic against Lydia's old gown.

I didn't get pictures of the assembly, but it was fairly simple to put it together.  I overlapped and tacked down the shoulders first.  Then I sewed the sleeve to the shoulder.  Last I sewed the side seam, all the way from the bottom of the gown, up to the shoulder seam, and then down the sleeve. Below is the first finished gown.  I can't WAIT to see baby Joshua wearing it!