Betty Draper's nightgown

When I modeled my newly sewn nightgown for my husband, he raised an eyebrow and said, "Mad Men?"

Ah, he knows me too well. I saw this Burda pattern (#7109) at Joann's earlier this summer and had to have it because the long gown looked like a nightie Betty Draper would wear. I think she's borderline despicable, but that said, I do love her fashion style: classic and preppy with a hint of sexy. I also love the idea of looking halfway appealing at bedtime; it's all to easy to throw on a baggy t-shirt and call it a night.

My mother and I went on a fabric shopping trip last weekend to one of our favorite shops in Worcester. Normally I find only a bolt or two of fabric that interests me, but this time I walked away with nearly 20 yards of fabric for nightgowns, blouses, and a skirt. (And my mother paid for it all. I have such an enabling nice mom!)

This long gown takes nearly four yards of fabric to make, so I cut into the fabric length I liked least for my test run. The fabric washes beautifully -- no wrinkles fresh out of the dryer! -- and it responded well to pressing. I love Burda's designs, but their directions are terrible, I suppose because they're very bad translations of German. I ended up winging it on my own with good results. Really, most of my time was spent tracing out the pattern and cutting it from the fabric. Next time I make this, I'll drop down another size given that I have  narrow shoulders and Germans don't. Also the directions didn't include instructions for stay-stitching the neck and armholes, which I think is an important step to avoid distortion in the finished neckline and armholes. Although it looks long on the dress form, the gown is a perfect length for me at 5' 6". The bodice neckline is trimmed with cotton eyelet lace, and the ribbon is a simple 3/8"-wide ribbon I picked up at Joann's.

I'll definitely be sewing up a couple more and getting my Betty Draper on!