How to Make Knit Nightgowns from Thrift Store Sheets

Nightgowns are yet more useful garments that can be made from knit thrift store sheets. In my area, knit sheets cost around $2 to $3. Even if I only got one nightie out of each sheet, that’s a great deal! However, there’s fabric left in each sheet for another nightie or t-shirt for my daughters.

You may use any commercial nightgown pattern for a sleeveless or sleeved nightgown. Or, you can work with a simple t-shirt or tank pattern you already have that fits well. In the case of my nighties (pictured above), I lengthened the front and back of my camisole/tank top pattern to make the pattern. I lengthened the side seam to 37 inches below the armpit, so that it would fall just below my knees. My camisole pattern is shaped, meaning it comes in at the waist and then flares out a bit toward the hip, so I continued this same flare-line to my desired length. This turned out to be the perfect flared skirt for the nightie.

Then I made the center front/center back 1″ longer yet than the side seams. This extra length at the center of the body in front or back is to compensate for chest and bottom. Those areas of the body take up some of the length, so the garment must be lengthened to account for it. I used a carpenter’s L-square to draw a perpendicular line across the paper from the side seam’s lowest point to the center front/center back line (I had to do this on both the front and back pieces). Then I marked off a point on the center front/center back that was one inch further along the center front/center back line than the point where the perpendicular intersected it. This is the point I wanted. I drew a curve to connect the side seam lowest point to the center front/center back lowest point, making it level and perpendicular as it came to the center front/center back point. Then a hem allowance must be added; 1″ makes a nice hem.

To cut out and sew the nightgowns, the procedure is very similar to that which I follow to make t-shirts from sheets.

Here are two exceptions.

Exception #1. Unfortunately, you can’t line up the hem of this garment with the hem of the sheet. The center front and center back are typically longer than the side seams in flared/skirted garments. The bottom can be hemmed using a stretch stitch on a sewing machine; using a twin needle on a sewing machine; by rolled hemming on serger (what I did); or a double-coverstitch with a coverstitch machine (or serger with this application). But, sleeves (if using) can still be lined up with the hem of the sheet to save the trouble of hemming there.

Exception #2. If making a sleeveless nightie, binding must be applied at the armhole curves, too. This can be done in the same manner as for the neck, using a binding strip. Cutting 1-inch wide strips makes for a nice binding on women’s and girls’ garments. It should be 75% the circumference of the opening plus 1/2″ for seam allowance of 1/4″ at each end. For more information, visit Threads’ Not Your Ordinary T-Shirt and scroll down to Tips For a Neat, Round Neck.

In my case, I used my serger to sew the seams and my coverstitch machine and binder to apply the binding. My binder requires 1-1/4″ binding strips and I apply them “flat” which means I sew the top of the garment in this order: serge one shoulder seam, apply neckline binding, serge the other shoulder seam, apply both armhole bindings, and then serge down the side seams. All that’s left then is the hem, and I explained those options in Exception #1.