Baby Jammies into Dress*

Last time we altered some cute winter baby clothes (found here) that were too small for my little girl. We are going to do another one today however it's a little more complicated.

But still do-able!!! 

So here we go on part 2!

She likes the pockets!

Little winter dress.

Supplies:

- Baby jammies (with feet or without)

- Sewing supplies 

- You may need some extra matching fabric

for the collar or the ruffle

This is what it looked like before 

(I just altered it to make it bigger not to change the look).

First I started with the neck which was too tight. 

This one had a separate yoke type neck piece. There are several ways to make the neck bigger. I decided to detach the yoke piece, make the neck hole bigger and re-attach it. 

(Now, if you don't have a way to alter the neck yoke detach it and use another piece of fabric like a binding.)

After removing the yoke turn it inside out, and stitch the neckline in about a half inch. 

Then trim the edge down to 1/4 inch.  

Next find the middle of the yoke and mark it with a pin and open it up.

After removing the yolk the shirt neck was too loose, so I sewed a basting stitch (long stitch length with no back stitching) and left the thread ends long. 

Find the middle of the neck and line it up with the middle of the yoke (where you put the pin). Pin the yoke on with right sides facing each other, pinning from the middle front to the back.

Now because the neck line was bigger there will be some extra fabric, that's why we did the basting stitch.

To get rid of the extra fabric pull one of the end threads just enough to gather the neck to fit the yoke. Make sure to gather it up evenly, and pin together the gathered areas. 

When you get to the ends make sure the yoke is sticking out off the neck line a 1/4 inch. Then sew it on.

Then flip the neck yoke up, fold the yolk right side together and sew the 1/4 inch edge hanging off. After that turn it right side out making sure the corners are square.

 

Turn the whole yoke collar thing so the right sides are facing out and sew it on covering up the raw edge. 

I stitched the right side up so the stitch line was neatly on the edge of the collar. 

Now for the bottom which was too short and too tight on the bum.

I wanted to make this a dress to keep those cute pockets, so I cut the legs off just above the snaps. I couldn't use the snaps so I cut them out entirely. To put in a ruffle on the bottom with the extra leg fabric  I cut the leg into 3 inch sections as you see below.

Take the 4 middle sections and discard the hem pieces, they won't work. Sew the 4 pieces in a strip.

Then single fold hem the bottom (I used a decorative zigzag stitch for fun), and sew the strip together to make a loop.

Next gather the loop to make the ruffle. 

(Tutorial on gathering found here and one on ruffles found here)

  

Gather ruffle so it fits and is even all the way around, then pin it on the right side facing.

Just press the seam facing down and we're done.