Delivery Gown

I've had a few people ask about my labor and delivery gown that my mom made for me. It really was fantastic, she let me pick out the fabric (red and black for my Red Raider of course) and we talked through the design process about features it needed, what I didn't want, and how to best adjust it so that it would fit me postpartum. It could have used a little more tightening and the straps shortened a smidge but otherwise it was perfect and all the nurses were impressed with it.

My mom started with an old school Kwik Sew nightgown pattern (#876) that she had in her stash.

Now unless you've been raised in a family of sewists you probably won't be able to find this pattern. The truth is that any nightgown pattern will work with some modifications. A more modern pattern we found is this Butterick Pattern B6300:

Note: we did not use this pattern, and it would take a bit more editing to accommodate nursing clips if you plan on breastfeeding, however it's a really great start.
Another great option is the pattern from Lazy Girl Designs with modifications. We found this blogpost on pinterest and she states that she used their hospital gown with modifications.

Ultimately we chose the one we did so that it could be used during labor and delivery and immediately after during skin to skin and first latch. It also made accommodations for needing an epidural, potentially having to have a C-section, etc. So without further ado, here we go!

Here are the pattern pieces I will be discussing so you know what I'm referring to with the modifications. This pattern also has different sizes as you'll see, small, medium, large and extra-large and I'll refer to what we did for me.

For Piece 1 we added 8" to the medium size pattern to allow for overlap of the front two pieces because it crossed in front. So no matter your size you need to add just enough material so that both pieces can overlap in the front completely, while fitting snugly. Think like a cross front bathrobe that you want to completely overlap. We cut 2 not just one so that there are 2 pieces to overlap.

We shortened the gown so that it wasn't floor length but knee length, again you would adjust based on your height.
We made breast darts in the front because the original pattern calls for gathering the fabric and we left it flat. This prevents extra material from looking boxy and gaping.
The biggest difference was that we changed the top of the gown to accommodate it being straight and putting in thinner straps.

For Piece 2 we added 1.25" to the pattern to allow for a 1 inch overlap (plus hemming) straight down the middle of the back so that we could put velcro down the back for an epidural, etc. We ironed on 1.25" of interfacing on both sides of the middle back opening to reinforce the seam the velcro is sewed onto. We used 3.5 inch strips of velcro starting at the top of piece 2, the measurements, from the top of piece 2, for placement of the next velcro pieces (top measurement, not center) are as follows: 8 inches, 15 inches, 23 inches, and 31 inches. Those evened it out across the majority of the length of the back. When I got my epidural the nurses were very impressed by this feature and that the nursing clips allowed the shoulder strap to come off if needed to tuck the IV under the strap. I chose velcro instead of snaps because I wanted something flat to lay on. Laying on snaps during labor and delivery didn't sound comfortable at all!

Once again we altered to top of piece 2 to accommodate it being straight and putting in thinner straps.

We sewed piece 1 to piece 2. Then added seam binding around the top unfinished edge to give it a finished look.

Our next step was to figure out the shoulder straps. I wanted thick/thin straps, not spaghetti straps, but not "full coverage" straps that could have nursing bra clips attached so I could be covered and nursing as needed. To figure that out we put the sewn together gown on and measured the distance between the top of piece 1 and the top of piece 2 for strap length. If you decide to not make it a nursing gown add 1.5" for hemming and attaching to seam binding. If you decide to make it a nursing gown don't add extra length. The nursing clips being attached will add enough extra length. The bra nursing clips we used were from amazon. I will say that even if you're not planning on breastfeeding the nursing clips allow it to be easy to take off if you still have an IV in. The beauty of this gown design is any piece can be removed completely if needed without cutting it.

To attach the nursing clips we used 3 inches each of 0.5" inch seam binding to attach the top and the bottom of the nursing clip to Piece 1 and the strap.

To keep it from being too boxy and gaping too much we added 2 extra darts along the front overlap piece 1, and 2 elastic gathers at the empire waist. We added 10" of  0.25" elastic to gather 18 inches of material under the breast to prevent gaping. It measures 6.5" down from the side seam. This leaves 7" of material between the end of the elastic and the edge of the front pieces. So we stretched the elastic out and sewed a long zig-zag stitch to allow it to gather correctly.

That's all I can think of modification wise that we did. If you have any questions or need clarifications on anything just comment below and I will clarify! Hope that helps!