Adaptive Nightgowns for Mom

Sometimes it happens, someone you know is no longer able to dress themselves. And finding adaptive clothing is not that easy. Here is a tutorial on how to re-fashion an already made nightgown into a hospital type gown that opens in the back. Hopefully making it easier for the person or their caregiver to dress. I have been searching the internet for patterns or ready-made hospital gowns, but to put it nicely, they are either very expensive and/or not so attractive. And I did not find ONE with long sleeves!  

I headed off to Macy's and found two very cute night gowns for less than $15 each. Can't even buy the fabric for that price!  

This polar fleece purple one.

And a red and white flannel one, both were full length gowns. I'll show you what I did. First I cut off 7 inches on the Purple one and 8 inches red one. The purple one was a bit shorter and since it was polar fleece I knew that I would not have to hem the edge. I used this material to create the modesty panel in back. Just cut along one seam making a long strip of fabric.

Next, using my rotary cutter and ruler, I cut  the entire length of the gown on one side in back -just were the curve on the neck of the garment flattens out. Put a small hem on the side that lapped over the modesty panel to finish it. For the modesty panel on both gowns I hemmed the modesty panel for the neck - curving it slightly. For the red gown I put wrong sides together with a 1/4 inch seam. Folded back with right sides together, pressed then sewed another 1/4 inch plus a little more to seam (making a French seam), or you could just zigzag to keep from fraying. Shortened and hemmed the modesty panel to match the length of the gown. Added ribbons to the top neckline on both the gown and panel and added two at the waist to tie the gown shut.

For the purple gown I just zigzagged the modesty panel to the back and used buttons and buttonholes to close the neckline of the gown. I added ribbon at the waistline, too. Now mom has two nice gowns that are easy for her help to get on. So far the gowns are both holding up well!