Simplicity 8488: Triple the Nightgowns (and a Minion Hat on the Side)

I’m going to start this off with a relatively quick knitting project I recently finished. The “Minion Hat” for Ace. His most favorite of favorite movies is Despicable Me, so when he found out that there were instructions out there for a hat, he commenced asking me about making him one…and repeated his questioning liberally until I finally made it up for him. (he’s so spoiled). The pattern is a free download from Ravelry. I substituted Cascade 220 yarn for the acrylic called for in the pattern, because I don’t particularly like knitting w/ acrylic yarn, and really hate wearing it. Does that make me snobby?

Minion Hat

 

It isn’t a perfect job, but good enough to make him happy. I’ll do better if I make it up again (next time in the adult size for Pete, I’m sure)

In sewing news. It was time to make nightgowns for Guinevere. I had fabric in the stash, so she got three new ones, all made off the same Simplicity 8488 pattern I also had in my stash. For the record, I don’t think I’m really fond of this pattern. I prefer one that has a lined yoke rather than the bias-tape at the neck. I initially thought I could just make up a yoke, but only the front of this pattern has the yoke, so I would have had to re-draft the back entirely. This may be the only batch she gets from this pattern, if I can find one that looks more promising between now and her next growth spurt. At least I had plenty of bias tape in the stash to choose from, and the short lengths needed to finish off the neckline helped to use up some smaller pieces.

Ballet nightgown

This first one is the one she was most excited about with ballerinas dancing all over the fabric. It was a pain to cut out trying to keep the ballerinas from having to dance upside down on one sleeve or another.

Green Flowery Nightgown

As you can see, tying the hair back was not something she was interested in after the first picture. She also was rather “meh” about this fabric. It’s nothing exciting, just purple flowers on a blue background, but I thought it was at least pretty and girly. Her lack of enthusiasm about the fabric isn’t stopping her from wearing it at least.

Shortcake Nightgown

Lastly we have a Strawberry Shortcake print (and a picture taken during some dancing moves, it isn’t that long if she isn’t in the middle of a hip wiggle). I had picked out the fabric, thinking it was a pretty safe pick. Obviously she likes Strawberry Shortcake. Unfortunately, this is a rather vintage-looking Strawberry Shortcake, as in what she looked like when I was a little girl (so not that vintage). She’s had a makeover since the 80’s and lost some of her roundness and some of the puff to the hat. Guinevere asked me why she was “such a strange-looking” Strawberry Shortcake. It isn’t vintage fabric, so I hadn’t even noticed she didn’t look exactly like the current model. This fabric was also a pain to cut out to make sure no one was stuck standing on their head. I’m all for cute nightgowns, but I think I’m going to try to avoid those directional prints from now on. They turn what should be a quick and easy project into something that requires a disproportionate amount of thinking to get started.

Stash-busting stats: 8, 9, 10/25


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