Shrink your dressing gown

08:00

So....you've been on a diet since new year and now your dressing gown is hanging off. You've come to the right place.

Sorry for the light difference, I started when the sun was shining and finished when it was raining {again}.

A few years ago I was a UK size 18. (US size 16?) but then I lost a lot of weight rather quickly so by the time Christmas came around, my family had bought me gifts that were too large. They had no idea that I'd gone down to a UK size 12 since the last time they saw me.

My younger sister and her husband gave me the softest dressing gown {housecoat to you Scots} in a pink with white polka dot fabric. I couldn't swap it as the store didn't have them any more so I wore it for a while but got a bit fed up of hefting such a huge amount of fabric extra around. I could never bring myself to throw it away because I loved it so much.

Moving house has prompted me to question keeping everything that we own and it has had to justify it's place in our increasingly full house. The time had come for the dressing gown..it was either shape up or ship out. So it shaped up.

Before..obviously.

Ok, so here's what I did.

I laid out the dressing gown inside out smoothing out all the wrinkles.

I laid my current {fitting} dressing gown out over the top.

Making sure that the top seams were aligned I was able to identify where it needed taking in along the sides and along the arms.

I marked along the line with pins and sewed from cuff to hem with a large zig zag stitch.

Trimmed it with pinking shears.

Now the sides were fine but there was too much fabric in the back so I laid it out side seams matching with the smaller gown and pinned along the back. Sewed it and trimmed it. I don't think anyone will notice my dressing gown has a seam down the back. If anyone sees it that is....