Like upcycling? Check out the women’s shirt to easy A-line baby dress tutorial or men’s shirt to little boy pajamas!
It’s garage sale season, which means it’s easy to pick up t-shirts for 50 cents or so – much less than it would cost to buy knit fabric. It’s also summer break for the kids, which means it’s a great time to clean out closets and figure out what can be donated or upcycled into something else. Today’s tutorial shows you how I turned a couple of garage sale tees into cute nightgowns for my daughter – it only takes two seams and less than a yard or so of elastic.
Here’s how to turn a tee into a princess nightgown:
I used a women’s size S tee from Old Navy for my 2-yr old daughter. If you have an older daughter you’ll probably need to start with a larger shirt. You want to make sure that the shirt is long enough to fit as a nightgown.
You’ll start by threading elastic through the existing neckband and sleeve hems and gathering them up to fit. This gives the nightie a cute peasant-dress look.
Use a seam ripper to slice a small hole on the inside of the neckbinding, then thread narrow elastic through the neck band and back out the same hole. I used 13 inches of elastic for the neck and about 7 inches of elastic for each sleeve. You’ll probably just want to start with a longer piece of elastic, thread it through, then try on your daughter and tighten as needed. Once you cut your elastic to the right length sew each end together with a zigzag. Repeat on the hem of each sleeve.
Once the neckline and sleeves are gathered, turn the nightgown inside out and lay it on a flat surface. Place a tee that fits your daughter over it, and pin a new seam starting just above the sleeve hem, going up under the armpit, and back down to the bottom of the nightgown as shown below.
Sew new seams and try one to be sure it fits. If it does, trim away seam allowance (if it’s too small you’ll need to unpick your seams and sew new ones – not that stuff like that ever happens to me 🙂
At the hem you can fold your seam allowances to one side and zigzag them down flat so they don’t hang out the bottom of the nightgown. You can even use matching thread if you’re less lazy than I am. (Sorry Mom, but the two-year-old isn’t going to notice I didn’t use matching thread.)
Press the side seams open and you’re through!
My daughter said it looked like a princess dress, so I added a little crown in silver puffy paint to the blue version:
She likes the pink one as well:
I’ve added an even easier version of this same t-shirt to nightgown refashion – find it here!
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Lynn says
This looks sooo comfy and your long sleeve version is just adorable. Oh how I wish we could have an adult version ! The boys PJ’s I so have to give a try ! I seen on Etsy toddler lounge pants made from old T-Shirts and finally found the pattern on Pinterest. This is just adorable and my I add so is the model
Julie says
Do you need to have a serger to sew the side seams…or just a regular old sewing machine? I love this idea. My daughter is a tall 5 year-old, though…so we’ll see what I can find that’s long enough. She can always wear little leggings with it, keeps her warmer that way, anyway. Thanks!
autumn says
A normal machine will work fine – just use a narrow zig zag so the seam will have a little stretch. Good luck!
Carly says
What a fantastic idea! My girls really need some new pajamas. But nightgowns are sooo expensive, and my girls are picky! No scratchy anything and only nightgowns will do. They do actually love to wear my husband’s old t-shirts to bed. This is such a great way to make those old tees into better fitting nightgowns for them. Wow! I’m so excited I might have to raid his drawer right now and give it a try. I have a couple old t-shirts they’d love to wear to bed to. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Eliz says
Super creative! Great post! Thank You!
Bonnie says
Wow, what a great, simple idea! I think I will do this for my daughter, thanks 🙂